


Brunch is a good start

by pbwriter



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2018-12-13 16:59:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11764371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pbwriter/pseuds/pbwriter
Summary: A glimpse into Cosima's and Delphine's attempts at mapping out their new normal through words and actions.





	1. Chapter 1

It feel odd, but so normal thought Delphine as she sat waiting for her coffee and reading her tablet while Cosima flittered in the make shift kitchen of the basement apartment slash lab slash greenhouse. 

She was finally allowing the sensation to become a natural part of her consciences when she was snapped back to the present by the chiming of her laptop buried deep in her duffel bag, where it had remained forgotten sense before she arrived on the doorstep of the Rabbit Hole only a day before. 

The unfamiliar sound caught Cosima attention as well. Stopping her in her tracks intently watching her lover get up from her seat and wrestle the laptop out of its packing. 

"Allo Maman" Cosima heard her say almost immediately as she opened it up. 

"Allo Bebe`..." she heard from the other side of the screen. “And remember Delphine, English. I need to practice Qui?

"Qui, err... yes Maman." Delphine replied.

"I was very surprised to hear from you after so long, but so very happy.  
Papa and I have been very worried about you. We are used to you not checking in regularly but this...this was a very long silence.” Delphine could hear the worry in her mother’s voice. 

“I know Maman, I am very sorry. Work. My job, you know how demanding it can be but it is unforgivable, I never meant to go so long without checking in. That’s why I left you that message as soon as my flight landed. I had hoped I could manage a visit while I was in Geneva but it was not possible.” Delphine tried to explain.

The conversation was abruptly interrupted by a crash in the kitchen

"Fuck!" Delphine heard Cosima spit out, She shot her a concerned looked, Cosima was jumping around hands flying as she looked for a dish towel "its ok, its ok...I just over pored my tea and it got all over the counter, I'm sorry.”

"Who is that Delphine?" Cosima heard from the speaker.

"Umm, it’s a girlfriend of mine Maman...Cosima..." She said as she maneuvered the laptop around to show her mother the dreadlocked girl who had interrupted their conversation, "Maman, meet Cosima, Cosima, meet my Mother, Eva Cormier." 

"Oh, uh, Allo Cosima." I hope I did not interrupt anything" 

"Oh, hell, er heck no, of course not I was just, you know, hanging out and stuff, I'm sorry go back to your catching up." Looking apologetically at Delphine she mouthed her apologies for intruding.

Delphine moved the computer back towards her to continue the conversation.  
Cosima went back to the task of cleaning up after herself.

"How are our Men?" Delphine asked her mother.

“They are very good Cherie, as you know Papa is closing down the lab and preparing for retirement and Samuel is nearly finished with his degree and excited about his next move, he misses his sister though. You should reach out to him.” Said her Mother

"Qui Maman, I know. I have been remiss in tending to my family. I can only apologize so much" she said with a hint of exasperation in her voice. 

Her mother sighed, "I was not aware of any apologies." she snidely commented. 

Cosima caught the eye roll from her lover and smirked at the unfamiliar scene playing in front of her. In all their time together, Cosima was only just realizing she knew very little about her lover, other than, where she came from and where she went to school. She didn’t know she had a little brother who missed her or a mother that could elicit such a normal emotion of mother/daughter angst so effortlessly. 

She found herself trying to keep very quiet and invisible so she could continue on eavesdropping and fill in the blanks of the woman she loved most in life, hoping to attain a wider understanding of who she is and how she became the woman she knows now.

She heard Delphine ask about the harvest, and about the amount they hoped to produce this season, Cosima’s mind began to wandered into the realm of day dreams, imagining her beloved the daughter of a famous French winemaker...that lead her to fantasies of the farmer’s daughter which led her to fantasies about the farmers naughty daughter...she was snapped back to reality as she heard Delphine begin to sign off. 

“Qui, Maman, I will promise to try and be there, but really I must hang up now. I promised to take Cosima to brunch this morning.”

Delphine smiled as she caught her lover’s quirk of an eyebrow realizing she was clearly just trying to wrap up this long mother daughter catch-up session. 

“Qui, Bebe` ciao! 

Delphine lowered the laptop and sauntered over to her lover who was watching her from the make shift kitchen.

“Well, That was unexpected?” Cosima offered. 

“I suppose it was.” Delphine replied. Cosima went on, “Although I have many, many questions about that call, what stands out the most is the fact that she didn’t really sound all that surprised to speak to you, after all, haven’t you been off the grid for nearly 6 months?” Cosima tilted her head as she waited for an answer.

Delphine tried to gage her partner’s body language knowing her answer might lead to some unpleasant revelations.

“For the most part, yes, but I was encouraged by my Host to occasionally check in with my family so as to not alarm them into action and force them to involve the police by reporting me as a missing person. I was allowed to send emails every few weeks to my mother, as long as they were vague in nature.”

“Huh” Cosima began, “did it not occur to you try to get into contact with me as well?” 

Delphine scooched closer to where Cosima was standing, “It did occur to me, but I had done quite a convincing job of our break up that they believed you would most likely not care about my sudden disappearance...they were not worried about you caring if I had gone missing.” 

Delphine had closed the gap between her and Cosima and brought her hand up to the brunettes face, gently cupping her cheek. She could see that her lover’s eyes were beginning to swell with unshed tears. 

“Is that what you believed as well?” Cosima asked in a hushed voice

Delphine thumb brushed away the single tear that had broken away.  
“At first, yes” Delphine answered honestly. “But then, I had learned that S was looking for me, rather aggressively...and I assumed it was at your urging” 

Delphine released a deep breath. “Cosima, I knew they were monitoring all my communications, I didn’t want them thinking you were still a weakness for me. That is why I didn’t risk it. But please know I, uh, I... knew you still had me in your heart, I believed you still cared for me.

“love Delphine, not cared!” Cosima pushed her hand away from her cheek, beginning to feel angry by what she was hearing. “I love you Delphine, I always have. Those feelings never went away no matter how hard you tried to push me away.”

Delphine dropped her head, the sadness enveloping her. “I know Cherie, I know. I’m sorry for the choices I made, I will never know if they were the right ones, or wrong ones because I refuse to live in the past, not now that we are so close to the end. We are on the brink of creating an entirely new future for us both, one were we can be together.”

She felt Cosima reach for her hand and take in in her own. Squeezing it just enough to draw Delphine’s attention back to her eyes. 

“I know baby, I know. And I want that too. It’s just going to take a while to heal all those little wounds that we’ve both had to inflict on each other.” 

Cosima rocked up to her tippy toes so she could reach her lovers lips for a chaste kiss. “Now, moving on, didn’t I hear something about brunch?” she asked. 

The tension that was building inside of Delphine’s chest was released instantly as she heard the teasing tone in her lover’s voice, realizing that Cosima was willing to let this fight come to an end.  
“Yes, that is true, I did promise to”...she lowered her voice as she leaned in closer to Cosima’s ear “take you...” she breathed the last part into the exposed patch of skin she found on the back of neck. “To Brunch” she finished while taking a little bite of the warm flesh she found there.

“hmmm, I wonder...what’s on our menu for this brunch date?” Cosima hummed

“You.” Delphine answered as she reached for her lovers hips and lifted here almost effortlessly to rest on the edge of the counter. The smaller girl let out a yelp, taken aback by the swift movement. Delphine’s hands were on the move and were now paused at the hem of Cosima’s oversized sweater.  
“I would like to take this off, do you object?” she teased  
“Fuck no I don’t object Dr. Cormier. Feel free to take anything off you want.”  
“Good, I will do just that” she said as she proceeded with doing away with the barriers between them.  
Delphine’s lips replaced the clothing that once covered the olive tinged skin she desperately craved.  
Her mouth and tongue worked fast to cover the distance from her neck, to collarbone to finally the stiffening nipple that was captured beneath lace. Delphine’s long arms made quick work of the bra’s fastening behind her lover freeing the constricted flesh.  
She was thrilled to feel the weight of the other girls breast fall free into her palms where she massaged and kneaded them briefly before finally taking the now hard nipple into her mouth. Licking and eventually sucking them until she could hear her lover’s moans hit a fevered pitch. She wasn’t surprised when she felt her lovers hands find purchase of her blonde curls and began pushing her downward.  
“Lay back Mon Amore” Delphine demanded “I have you, you’re safe” she assured as she placed her lovers legs over her shoulders.

With that promise Cosima lowered herself and scooted herself to the very edge of the counter that she was now fully resting on. She felt Delphine trail kisses down her stomach, around her navel... she felt a sharp nip to her hip bone and then licks to the inside of her thigh. 

“Please don’t tea...” but before she could finish her sentence she felt her lovers strong muscle invade her swollen, slick, folds as it ran the entire length of her slit.  
“Oh fuck yes!” Cosima screamed out, clearly not caring who, if anyone could hear what was happing in the basement apartment of a dilapidated comic book store. 

Delphine had so missed the taste and sheer physical joy it gave her to pleasure Cosima this way. She decided to prolong the experience by making sure to steer clear of the noticeably trembling clit. Delphine could see it was glistening with arousal so instead, she used her fingers to elicit more screams, first one then two, picking up her pace as she went, feeling the smaller woman react the way she had hoped, bucking her hips off the counter for greater friction but that only made Delphine want to laugh at her increasing desperation. 

“Non, non my puppy, not yet.” She cooed. I’m in charge right now.”

Cosima hadn’t had much experience with this side of Delphine, she had hints and glimmers just from how quickly her lover had improved along the way, but Delphine was rarely this dominant. But, with that said, Cosima was in no position to complain, she was loving every second of attention the blonde was lavishing on her cunt right now. 

“Please Del, please baby let me come...please...” she found herself begging.  
The timber of Cosima’s voice broke Delphine from her trance, she could tell she was walking a thin line and it was pleasure, after all, she was trying to give her beloved. She returned her mouth back to Cosima clit and sucked on it until she felt Cosima tilt over the edge, over and over again.  
~  
As the two lounged in the comfort of the too small bed, they leisurely touched and traced tight circles on each other’s bare skin as they allowed time for their sore muscle to recover from over use.

“Delphine?” Cosima asked finally.

“Mmm hmm” Delphine hummed, realizing she barley had the energy to form a real word

“Why didn’t your Mom know who I was?” Cosima asked

“Because, I never told her about you, or us for that matter.” Delphine answered, rather matter of factly

By now Cosima had turned her head that was still resting on the blonde’s chest so she could look her in the face, squinting her eyes to get a better look at her lover’s expression

“Never? Not even a little bit?” This made Delphine chuckle. “I wouldn’t even begin to know how to explain this situation in terms of a little bit”

But Cosima wasn’t really finding the humor in the situation. “Hey, don’t joke. Were you ever planning on telling them about us...about you?”

Realizing that this might be more of an issue than she thought. Delphine pulled herself up to the top of the bed and sat up so she could see her better.

“And what would you have liked me to have told them about me? “ Delphine was treading lightly but she was genuinely curious on what it was Cosima was trying to ascertain from this conversation.

“Ummm, for starters, that you’re gay” Cosima pushed

“Am I?” Delphine pushed back

“I don’t know Delphine, are you? Cause, that brunch...felt pretty gay to me” Cosima glared at her, the two seizing each other up. It was Delphine who broke first.

“Ha! You make a very good point Cherie!” Pulling her up to meet her lips and drawing her into a deep kiss before continuing their talk.

“But, Cosima, I don’t know if I am ready to make such declarations, not because I am ashamed of our love, or our coupling. But because I don’t really feel like I am a box that needs to be checked.”

She paused before continuing. 

“It’s like I told you the first time we got together, sexuality is a spectrum, I now know I am much higher on that spectrum than I first thought, but, I also know that you are the only woman I have been sexually attracted too. So does that make me, gay, lesbian, or bisexual? I have yet to determine.

Cosima took in what her lover was saying, it certainly made sense to her, being someone who equally hated the need for labels. She chalked up her bubbling insecurity to the fact that she still felt on shaky ground with Delphine and deeply needed to DTR.

“Look, I’m sorry Delphine, I know we’ve agreed to make several concession to make this relationship work. I guess I just hoped that once all this clone/neo bullshit was behind us, we could try and move towards a more traditional existence.” She confessed.

Delphine took in what she was saying, choosing to pause before responding right away.

“Well, firstly, I seriously doubt we will ever be a traditional couple, we have way too much panache to be ordinary. But, if you are questioning my commitment to you, don’t. I am, how do you say? 100 percent committed to you. I am only capable of monogamous relationships. I have never been good at sharing” she said with a slight smile. ”Shay can attest to that.” 

The mention of Cosima’s rebound girl took her by surprise. Causing Cosima to feel she needed to explain that dalliance “I never loved her, you know that right?”

“Non, I did not know that. I had hoped it was nothing serious, but after a while, I could tell that you did have real feelings for her. And, in a way I could understand why. She is quite pretty. And she and you had far more in common than we ever did. Let’s just say I saw the appeal to having a relationship with her. “ 

Cosima had pulled herself up and maneuvered her way into a straddling position across Delphine’s lap.

“Well, you can believe what you want, but I’m telling you I was never in love with her. I honestly have been in love with you, and only you, since the first second I laid eyes on you in that lab. No bullshit!” she added the last bit with a bit of flare.  
Delphine let out a little laugh, “Bon! Because I too have loved you for an equally long time” she said before kissing her on the nose.

“Wait, you are telling me it wasn’t love at first sight like it was for me?” Cosima whined

“Co-Si-Ma! Please, let it rest for a moment I want my brunch now!” she said before pulling her into a tight embrace.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick one, as we make our way towards tiding up all the loose ends.

“Cosima, are you sure you are okay with this?” Delphine asked her girlfriend, who was hovering behind her watching as she packed her bags. 

“As okay as I can be I guess” the brunette huffed.

Delphine knew this was going to be a touchy subject when she first mentioned to Cosima her plans to travel to France at the end of the week for a long overdue visit home.  
“It’s not going to be a long visit, just a few day for my father’s retirement party. I have missed so many family functions over the past four years. Who knows when I will get this chance again?”

“Ugg!” Cosima growled. “I said it was fine Delphine, I want this for you too, it’s just, you know with everything going on, and it’s just going to suck with you gone.” 

Delphine felt her lovers arms circle her waist and pull her in tightly “I’m going to miss you but this is the first time I’ve actually watched you pack a suitcase and sincerely believed I would see you again, so that progress yeah?” Cosima said, finishing with a kiss to the back of the blondes neck.

Delphine turned in her arms to face Cosima “Qui, progress towards you finally starting to trust what I say.” 

“Oh no, no you don’t get to do that Del, I had plenty of good reasons for not trusting you, so let’s not open that can of worms.”

Delphine scrunched up her nose in disgust, “Ew, no worms, please. I am sorry for what I said.” leaning down to place a soft kiss on her lovers lips. 

Cosima let her go to continue her packing and sat on the edge of the bed to watch. “So what are the plans for this visit home?” she asked.

Delphine was gathering her personal items from the bathroom and loading them securely in a travel bag, she looked towards the brunette holding up a bottle of Cosima’s body wash “Would you mind if I brought some of this this with me? You, know so I can have you on my body while I’m gone?” she said seductively but with a little smile.

“Sure, or you could just take me with you and have the real thing on your body while you’re gone” Cosima slyly slipped in to the conversation.

“Yes, that would be a much better option, but...” Delphine paused for a few seconds.  
“But, you want this visit to be about your father and not us, I know, I know I heard what you said.”

Delphine walked over to where Cosima was sitting, “Cherie, I have every intention of telling my parents about you, and us. I just believe that it would be better to do it after my Papa’s, eh, fathers party. He has worked so hard for many years. He deserves all the attention on him. After the party I will sit down with them and explain, as much as I can, without divulging too much of course, about what has transpired these past few months, but it will be a shock for them to learn that I am...” ”A lesbian?” Cosima interjected, “Non” Delphine corrected “I was going to say unemployed.”

Cosima’s eyes grew wide with understanding, “Fuck, I don’t know why that never occurred to me. Dude, you are, like totally fired right?”

Delphine could only chuckle, “yeah, I would say so. Once you take down a major corporation and expose their entire covert and unethical business dealings you can pretty much count on not having a job after.”

“Wow, so like, my girlfriend is a totally broke, dead beat” she teased, pinching her in the side for emphasis. Delphine slapped her hand away, “While yes, I could technically be described as a dead beat, I wouldn’t say I was totally broke?” 

Cosima’s eyebrow quirked up, “Oh yeah? Like how not totally broke are you?”

Delphine gave her a little smirk, “let’s just say neither one of us are in any hurry to find another job right away.” Delphine got up to grab her laptop, she clicked on a folder on her desktop titled Eskimo Pie. Cosima watched closely as Delphine typed in some passwords and clicked in to some more folders until finally a spread sheet opened up.

“What’s this puppy?” Cosima asked curiously while scanning the document. 

“Let’s just call it our 401K plan, courtesy of my former employer, Aldous Leekie.”

“Holy shit Delphine, did you rip off DYAD?” The mere thought of it made Cosima giddy with excitement.

“Non. I would not call it ripping off Cosima. You see this number here?” Delphine grabbed her lovers hand and scrolled the cursor over to a number with several zeros in it, “This is my severance package, and this here,” Delphine scrolled over to another part of the screen, “...is a signed release for you and all your sisters from any previous or pending patents based on you and your sisters genetic DNA. This number here is your percentage of profits made from the use of any intellectual property obtained by using said DNA.”

“Holy water shed, are you for real?” she scanned Delphine expression for any indication she was bullshitting her. 

“Qui, I am for real, and it is completely legal and has already been paid out to a series of private off shore accounts that Aldous himself had set up as a final Fuck you to the company if he were to ever mysteriously disappear or meet an untimely death.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Cosima asked suspiciously. 

“I’m telling you now” Delphine answered simply. 

“Because I asked” Cosima countered

“Yes...and no. Siobhan had asked me not to say anything until everything was completely over. But, because you had asked. I am telling you now. You see Cosima. You can trust me.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the great comments, kudos and good vibes in general

“Oh my god Cherie, oh my god...I’m...I’m just so shocked. When did it happen?” Delphine kept shaking her head as if trying to dislodge the mental visual of S lying dead in her own blood.

“Probably the night we leaked the files, But Sarah and Felix don’t know for sure. They ended up staying out all night celebrating, then crashed at Colin’s. So it could have been a day later. It’s just really crazy over there right now, Sarah’s a mess and Arthur is trying to control the crime scene as much as possible, redirecting and misinforming were he can...it’s just really fucked up. I just wish you were here.” Cosima sat curled up on her couch with her laptop on her knees as she recounted the horrible news to her lover a thousand miles away.

“Mon Amore, I’m sorry that I am not there. I will make arrangements to be on the next flight home as soon as possible.” Wishing she could reach through the screen and comfort her girlfriend.

“No Del, don’t. It makes no sense, you only just got home, and there’s no way you could make the service now, plus Alison and I can’t go anyway, and Art is still worried that there are a few rouge Neo’s out there trying to wrap up loose ends, who knows for sure if you aren’t one of those loose ends. As much as I want you here I know you are much safer out of the country until this blows over.”

Delphine expression changed dramatically, shaking her head violently. “No, no, Cherie, I have no intentions of staying away from you longer than I have too. I made a promise to you and I have every intention to keep it!” Delphine made a fist but refrained from striking out at anything.

“Ok, ok babe, calm down a sec. We don’t have to decide anything right now. Ok, it’s cool. It’s cool.” Cosima was using her hands and body to desperately try and convey her thoughts on the situation to the blonde and force her to see reason in what she was saying.   
“Besides, you kind of motivated me to take a little trip home myself.” She went on “I mean, it’s not really fair for me to want you to tell your parents about us if I don’t do the same thing right?” 

“What do you mean exactly Cherie, when you say tell your parents?” Delphine questioned.

Cosima shifted a little in her seat, pulling the screen closer. “I want them to know what’s been going on, I want them to know who I am...what I am. I want them to know that I’m ok now, and that I wasn’t ok before. I want them to know about you, my sisters and all the others out there that I, we, plan on helping.” She finished saying with a heavy sigh.

“Delphine? Are you in here Cherie?” Cosima could hear another voice in the background coming from the speakers.

“Qui Maman, I’m just face-timing Cosima. I will be right there” Delphine spoke of the screen to her mother.

“I have to go Cherie, will you be alright?” she said looking back at the screen now

Cosima was shaking her head yes before finally answering “Yeah, I’m good babe. Go I’ll check in with you after the funeral”

“Ok, I...” Cosima watched as her lover grew shy and could hear her whisper her next words 

“Je t'aime Cosima. I will speak to you soon.” Delphine told her as she reached her fingers to her lips to kiss them and placed them on the screen.

Cosima watched as her girlfriend disappeared from the screen. “I love you too” she whispered back.

“Who was that?” Delphine heard her mother ask, startling her.

“It was Cosima, you remember, the girl, eh woman, I introduced to you to last time we spoke” Delphine answered.

“Isn’t it late for her to be contacting you now? Is everything alright? Her mother probed.

“Non, actually things are pretty bad for her now. Her, um, Aunt died very recently, she was killed in some kind of accident. S- Siobhan, She was a good woman, and a good friend to me.” Delphine could feel the tears begin to well up in her eyes.

“I feel so helpless being this far away” Delphine let her voice trail off.

“Helpless to who? This Cosima you speak of so much? Who is this girl to you Cherie?”   
~

Cosima shut her laptop and shoved it off her lap a little more forcibly than she had intended.  
She could feel the anger bubbling up, even though she knew it wasn’t fair. She honestly believed Delphine would have followed through and made arrangements to return that very moment, but she wasn’t feeding Delphine a line, the funeral was planned for the next day and she never would have made it home in time. It was the right decision to stay for her father’s celebration and be there with her family. Cosima began to surmise that that was the real culprit of this unwanted, negative emotion. She had come to consider Delphine her family as much as she had considered the clones to be her sisters. She just wanted her there next to her, to cry with her. To rub her shoulders and tell her it was all going to be okay, even if it didn’t feel like it was right now. 

“Geez Girl! Snap the fuck out of it! “ She chastised herself. She reached for the discarded laptop again and began to research flights to the west coast.

~~

“Maman, I’m not sure this is a conversation we should start right now” Delphine said, turning away from her mother rather abruptly.

“And why not my bebe`? Is it a conversation you think I would not like to have?” her mothered clucked.  
Delphine took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling before releasing it. “She is not simply a friend to me, she is my girlfriend Maman. Cosima is my lover.”

 

~~

“Hey Sally... it’s your long lost baby girl!” Cosima sing songed into the receiver of her phone.

“Hey you?” Cosima’s mom cooed back, “And how is my baby girl? I was beginning to think you had disappeared into the nether world and forgotten about your dear old ma and pa!” Cosima couldn’t really detect any real anger in her mother’s tone, just the usual amount of mutual teasing.

“Yeah, that’s fair. I guess you aren’t too far off, I may have dipped a bit from the grid for a little longer than usual. But that’s why I’m a calling I was hoping that maybe it would be ok if I came home for a little bit, you know catch you up on some things.”

~~

“Huh...” was all her mother managed to say after an agonizing few seconds of silence. 

“So is that the reason you have stayed away from your family for so long?” she finally asked.

Delphine tried to gage her mother’s reaction, but was truly unable to detect any real tell on how her mother was handling the news.  
“Not solely, but it played a part.” Delphine answered honestly “You have always known that my work had me sign many non- discloser agreements and, technically, I met Cosima through work. So it was just very convenient to loop my relationship with her in those confines.” 

Delphine had reverted back to the safety of her boss bitch persona, as Felix so dearly loved to describe it, to insulate herself from any possible negative reaction her mother might throw at her. 

“I see” Her mother said rather flatly “so, why are you willing to admit this now then?”

Fuck. Delphine thought to herself. She had hoped she would be able to dole out all this knew information to her parents in intervals. But now she was in it, no turning back now.

“I am no longer beholden to DYAD Maman, I have left the company, and very soon you and the rest of the world will know why.” She squared her shoulder up and turned to face her mother, ready for all that was about to fall her way.

“Bon! Good! I hated that you were wasting your talents with that company anyway. You are too compassionate to spend your days locked up in a lab. You should refocus your efforts in helping people Delphine, your father will agree with me, I’m sure about that” Her mother made her way over to her daughter and pulled her into a tight, crushing hug.

Delphine found she was beyond surprised by her mother’s reaction and was hesitant to return the hug.  
“And what about Cosima Maman, what are your feelings about that? Delphine asked finally 

“Tisk!” she heard her mother say in her ear before putting some distance between them, her hands still wrapped around her daughters arms. 

“We are French Delphine, we enjoy lovers. Regardless of their gender, non?”

Delphine blinked a few times, wondering if she was hearing her correctly, knowing that her mother had yet to master the English language.

“Qui, regardless of gender, but to be clear, you understand that I am telling you that I am in a sexual relationship with a woman, that we live together, as a couple, qui?”

“Qui fille, I understand. And If you are truly happy and finally in love, than I am truly happy for you. She is a beautiful woman Delphine. You make a beautiful couple.” Her mother finished her comments punctuating her thoughts with a kiss to each of Delphine’s cheeks. 

“Now, let’s go open some wine and we will devise a plan on when and how we will tell our Men of this new chapter you are embarking on in your life, qui?” she asked her daughter. 

“Qui Maman” Delphine returned, before dragging her mother back into another hug.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This should be the last long distance chapter, working towards getting these two back into the same town very soon. Also, I think I'm done misspelling "Oui" but don't know for sure. We will see how it goes.

“You are lying! Cosima shrieked

“Non! I swear to you, that is what she said!” Delphine defended.

“Babe, that is so cool, I have to admit I’m kind of crushing on your Mom right now.” Cosima said with a grin. 

“Well, it is understandable, she is quite crush worthy, as you would say.” Delphine smiled back.

“She too is very enamored with you. She thinks you are very beautiful and that we make a handsome couple, her words, not mine.” Delphine finished. 

“How did your Dad and brother take the news?” Cosima asked.

“Papa was rather stoic for the most part but that is not unusual for him. He listen, nodded his head and then poured us more wine. Samuel has thrilled, he said having a female lover made me more interesting!” Delphine guffawed.

“Did you tell him your sexuality is not the most interesting thing about you?” Cosima asked teasingly.

“Non, I think the relevance of the comment would be lost on him. And besides, it’s nice to have him think I’m interesting for once. It’s very hard to hold my little brothers attention...Mon Amore? Where are you? It does not look like the basement.”   
Delphine noticed as she was lying on her stomach on her childhood bed in her old room talking to her girlfriend on the computer again, an almost daily habit since she had arrived in France 10 days earlier. But it had been almost three days since they last connected.

“Ah, very perceptive of you Dr. Cormier. I am actually in my old bedroom, on a houseboat, currently anchored in a Marina located in Sausalito, California.” Cosima picked up her laptop and turned it around to reveal her surroundings. It was a small room but very comfortably decorated, with a plush double bed and a funky hammock swing in the corner. She also could see the sail of a boat out of the window behind her.

“You are home?” Delphine nearly squeaked with excitement.

“Yep! The prodigal daughter has returned” she said cheekily.

“That is wonderful my love, I’m very happy for you. How are your parents?”

“Awesome, just really, really awesome. Man I forgot how good it feels to be with them. They’re just so chill, you know what I mean? Their whole energy just really calms me down. Things got really hair ball after S was killed. Then the shit with Helena...man it was just crazyville there. To be honest, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”

“And what of Charlotte, where is she?” Delphine had been worrying about the littlest Leda sister and what they would do with her once everything had settled down. She knew what she wanted, but thought it was a conversation best to have in person with Cosima.   
“She is still with Art, he found a three week science camp and convinced Sarah to let him sign up both Charlotte and Kira. They are pretty stoked about it.” Cosima told the blonde.

“Bon” Delphine had changed positions so she could remove her sweater, revealing a rather scantily clad torso covered by a lacy white bralette that left little to the imagination. 

“Um, what going on over there babe” Cosima’s curiosity was piqued by the sudden movement.

“It is very hot in my room, the farm house is very old and there is no air conditioning.” Delphine was answering honestly, she hadn’t really thought that her choice to remove her heavy sweated would cause her girlfriend’s imagination to wander.

“Yeah? How hot exactly?” Cosima’s voice had dropped a few octave “Like, so hot you might need to take your jeans off too?” 

That was enough to clue Delphine in on what was going on “You know, it is pretty hot, maybe you are right, I might feel better if I took my pants off too.” Cosima could hear the sound of a zipper being released.

“Oh shit...” Cosima whispered 

“Babe, is there any chance you, like, have a big glass of ice water next to you totally full of ice cubes?”

The odd question confused Delphine, “Non, why? Do I look thirsty?” 

“No, no that’s not it, I just thought the cold ice could help cool you down a little” Cosima quickly tried to get her girls focus back on the situation.

“Aww, I understand now, you thought that maybe if I had some ice I could rub it right...” Delphine dragged her finger across her lace covered chest tracing a trail from her collarbone to the valley of her breast. “Here?” Stopping just at the edge of where her pale skin met the rose colored flesh of her areola that was easy to make out from the translucent material.

Cosima visibly gulped. “Um, yeah that’s what I thought.”

“I don’t know Cherie,” Delphine teased as she circled the pebbling flesh “That might make my nipple become very, very hard.” She said punctuating the last word with a pinch to her now, very, very hard nipple. “It’s going to become very uncomfortable if I leave this bra on...” she trailed off.

“Yeah, wow, that would be bad huh” Cosima was beginning to squirm where she sat. “So, Babe you know if you should probably just take it off, and um, you should, like squeeze it a little that might make it feel better.”

“Oui? Like this?” Delphine had removed the bralette and had returned her hands to her own breast, squeezing gently and fingering the nipple, capturing it in the V of her index and middle finger and clamping it down. Making it appear even more erect than it already was. 

“Yeah, like that babe.” Cosima was completely mesmerized by her lover’s actions. She noticed that her other hand began to drop out of view, she strongly suspected it was making its way down to Delphine center.

“Baby? Are you fingering yourself?” Cosima looked silly as she seemed to be trying to look beyond the confines of her computer screen to see where Delphine’s other hand had gone.  
Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she watch Delphine bring her fingers to her mouth and licked them before putting them fully in her mouth and sucked. 

“What do you think Cherie?” Delphine asked seductively

“Fuuuuuck, What do I think Cherie?” Cosima asked, using the term of endearment Delphine preferred. “I think you should finish fucking yourself while thinking of me...and then, when your done screaming my name, immediately book a flight for San Francisco. “

“Oh yeah? You want me to fu...wait! What did you say?” Delphine was snapped out of the fantasy by here lovers last words. 

“I want you to come join me in SF Babe, I want to introduce you to my folks, I want to take you to my favorite dive bar. I want to make out with you on the Golden Gate Bridge, I want to do all the touristy shit with you Delphine. Come on, It will be our first real vacation together. So what you think, will you come?”

Delphine quirked an eyebrow “Yes Cherie, I’ll come...and then I’ll book a flight to San Francisco”

Cosima groaned at the double entendre “I can’t believe you said that you dork, call me when you have your flight info. I love you babe.” 

“Wait?” Delphine called out before Cosima could disconnect. “Where are you going? Don’t you...you know...want to watch me finish?”

Um, yeah I really, really need to take a shower myself...if you know what I mean.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the assorted typos!

“Where are you?” The blonde asked impatiently.

“I’m close, I promise, I’m just coming around the corner. Are you outside?” Cosima asked

“Yes, and its cold so hurry up!” Delphine said in a brisk tone. She could handle almost all of her girlfriend’s bad habits, but lateness is where she drew the line. Especially after a long flight.

“I see you!” Cosima squealed followed by a series of high pitched honks from a horn “Beep beep”

“Merde” Delphine mumbled as she watched her girlfriend nearly take out two unlucky pedestrians who just happened to step off of the curb at the same time the little yellow bug swooped in and slamming to a stop in front of Delphine 

“Hey Babe! Welcome to San Fran! Quick, get in I think I’m breaking like, 9 laws here!” Cosima shouted from the driver seat, a big grin on her face.

Delphine stood shocked before she managed to move, not knowing where to stash her luggage. She finally just decided to shove it in the cramped back seat of the ancient vehicle and scrambled to get in to the passenger seat. She reached back and made a couple attempts to grab the seatbelt before she finally realized it wasn’t behind her, this made Cosima break out in laughter. 

“This is a classic babe, the belt is down here, it goes across your waist like on a plane.” She told her as she reached over to buckle her in, checking it and then lifting her head to face Delphine.

“Hi” she whispered before kissing her gently on the lips, the sound of a loud horn breaking the connection before it could become more. 

“Fuck you dude! I haven’t seen my girlfriend in like, forever!” Cosima shouted out the window. When the other car slammed on the horn harder this time she relented and started the car.

“We better go” she said throwing the car in gear and peeling out. 

Delphine searched around looking for something to grab on to, eventually settling for the strap above the seat. Once they had worked themselves out of the maze of the airport the ride seemed to mellow out considerably. 

“Cosima, I didn’t think you knew how to drive?”

“What? Why? Cosima asked

“Well, for starters, you never drive anywhere. I always drive” Delphine explained.

“That’s because it’s your car and my car was here in the city.” Cosima answered matter of factly.

“What do you think of my ride anyway? She’s a real beauty don’t you think?” Cosima was patting the dashboard like it was a beloved pet.

“It’s....” Delphine was struggling to find a word that would not offend her girlfriend “Cute?”

“Cute!” Cosima repeated “She’s way more than cute, this ride is straight up RAD!” 

Delphine rolled her eyes before deciding it wasn’t worth further debate, “Fine, your car is absolutely Rad, my apologies” Delphine conceded leaning over to pat her lap. 

“Thank you, apology accepted. But be warned, whenever I’m home my hippy side comes out a little more than usual. I get to take my groovy V-Dub out and cruise around the old neighborhood. So, where to first?” Cosima asked

“The Ritz-Carlton” Delphine promptly replied.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, a hotel? I thought you were staying with me at my folks place” Cosima whined.

“Mon Amour, I have every intention of spending as much time with your parent as you desire, but, it has been several days, after several months after several weeks since we have been together and I plan on making up for that” Delphine quirked an eyebrow seeing if Cosima was following what she meant “We will not be doing the many things I want to do to you and your body, under the same roof as your parents. Comprendre?”

“Ohhhh, I get it and you make a very, very good argument my love. First stop, the Ritz!“ 

~~  
Cosima couldn’t get her head around how big the suite in the Ritz was that Delphine had reserved for them. It had extended views of San Francisco from the entryway, living room area and bedroom including Coit Tower, Transamerica Pyramid and Alcatraz Island and the master bedroom had French doors that led to the living room that had a huge flat panel TV and every kind of port possible for a tech nerd like Delphine.   
“Wow, so this is how it’s going to be from now on? I can get pretty use to having a rich sugar mama” she teased while pinching Delphine ass for emphasis.   
Delphine leaned down to kiss her girlfriends nose before starting to unpack.  
“I admit this is a bit extravagant, but as you said, this is our first real vacation together. I thought you deserved an upgrade from the yurt, Non?”

“Non! It’s freaking perfect Babe, thank you for arranging it and for coming. I’m really excited to show you my home. Starting with the boat. Why don’t you go shower up and get changed.

Delphine didn’t have to be told twice, she removed her sweater swiftly and was already reaching behind her back to release her bra before Cosima finished speaking. She walked over to Cosima and seductively leaned in to her lover.

“Do we have an exact time we need to be anywhere?” she asked in a huskily tone.

“No, not really, why do you ask” Cosima asked coyly 

“I was wondering if we had time for, um, brunch first?” Delphine was already removing her girlfriend’s top not waiting for permission.

“Delphine, there’s always time for brunch” she whispered as she grabbed the blondes hand and pulled her into the bathroom.

“Holly Shit! Look at the size of that bath tub!” Cosima exclaimed.

~~

“Mom? Dad? You guys here...permission to come aboard?” Cosima shouted from the dock that led to the porch of the house boat

“Up here pumpkin!” Delphine heard a woman’s voice but hadn’t seen who it belonged to. “On the roof” that prompted Delphine to look up, she saw a woman in her mid-sixties waving down to them. “Dads in the kitchen cleaning the oysters, I’m just getting the coals ready. Come on up!”

Cosima looked at Delphine, “Permission has been granted my love, follow me” Cosima walked to the side of the boat to a staircase that came off the wall and lead to the roof deck on top the boat house. 

“Mon dieu...what a magnificent view” Delphine said, clearly impressed by the sun setting in the distance

“Right?! It’s just incredible, isn’t it?! I’ve been trying to paint it for the last 20 minutes but I can’t blend the right colors to capture its true self...ugg, so frustrating!” The older woman shook her fist in frustration, a gesture she had seen her lover do many times before. But that’s where the resemblance ended, whereas Cosima had an olive complexion her mother was far paler. Instead of dark unruly curls she had straight, strawberry blond hair graying in the roots. Their body type was very different as well but her choice of fashion was very similar to Cosima, harem pants a brightly colored top and pattern outerwear.

“Anyway, that’s not what’s important, you! Doctor Delphine, is what’s important right now. Come give me a hug!” The stout woman pulled her into a big bear hug swaying her back and forth, ending it with an extra squeeze.

“Bonsoir Mrs. Niehaus” Delphine greeted her back with two kisses to her cheeks.

“Please, call me Sally, or Mom, or Maman or whatever, I don’t care, you can call me whatever you think suits me the best.”

“Merci, but I think Sally suits you very well, it is a very happy sound and you exude happiness” Delphine answered honestly.

Sally looked over towards Cosima and gave her a wink, “You weren’t kidding my girl, she really is a charmer.” Cosima wrapped her arm around Delphine waist “I said she was hot, and brilliant, I never said charming. I think she saves that quality for the parents” Delphine smiled at the comment.   
“I do actually, I have kept in touch with all of my ex’s parents, while completely cutting off the ex’s themselves” she explained. Realizing that’s not really the thing one should say when meeting her current partner’s family. She could feel the blush from embarrassment rise in her chest. “Forget that I said that, please!” 

“Nonsense!” Sally shushed, “I appreciate the honesty, and it’s refreshing. Californians are always so polite!”

Cosima just shook her head and chuckled at witnessing her, usually cool under pressure, girlfriend completely come unraveled.

“Ok, with that said, why don’t we sit down and pop open some wine” Cosima said as she reached over the blonde and grabbed the bottle chilling in the bucket on the table, turning the label towards her. 

“Yum Mom, Chateau Ste. Michelle Sauvignon Blanc” Cosima said impressed by her mother selection 

“Um hmm, a California grape with a French name, I thought It would suit our guest and go well with the oysters.” 

“Did someone mention oysters?” As if on cue Cosima’s father entered the deck from a door behind them, holding a huge silver bucket full of Oysters and a tray with about a dozen raw oysters already shucked and ready to be consumed. “Who’s first” he asked.

“Oh! me, me!” Cosima waved her arm excitedly, she sat down on the bench next to the table and prepared her treat with an ease of an expert fish monger. With a loud slurp she took down the delicacy in one gulp. “So freaking good pop!” she said before looking over at Delphine. 

“I’m sorry that was super rude of me, I should have offered you the first one” 

“No worries Mon Amour, there are plenty for all” She said before looking over to her father and extended her hand, “Allo, Mr. Niehaus, I am Delphine, Enchante.

“Enchante Delphine” Cosima’s father took her hand and kissed it in a sweet, cute way rather than a smarmy creepy way. And gave her a warm smile that reached his eyes.

“My, you really are a beauty aren’t you. “ completely enamored by the young woman.

“Oui, I am. Now, how about we get to those oysters!” 

~~

The four ate and drank under the night sky for several hours, keeping warm from the coals on the grill and wrapped in heavy blankets. They talked about the science behind their daughters existents and how they were able to find a cure together to save Cosima and her other sisters lives. They talked about how they never questioned the circumstances of Cosima’s conception because they so desperately wanted a child but new they would never be able to afford the fertility treatments on a teacher’s salary and how they just chose to not ask any questions when they were recruited to participate in the test trial.

Cosima’s parent told their daughter’s new girlfriend that they knew their child was exceptional, and they agreed that it wasn’t just DNA that made her that way. It was Delphine who pointed out that is was also their influence and parenting that played a part in the remarkable woman Cosima grew up to be. 

More wine was opened and the discussion of nature verses nurture went on to the early morning hours until they all finally decided to call it a night. They decided to spend the night in Cosima’s childhood bed rather than risking a trip back to the hotel. 

As the two woman tightly snuggled up to each other, Delphine concentrated on tracing the lines of her lovers tattoo.

“I love your parents” Delphine said quietly into the night. 

“Yeah?” Cosima whispered back

“Yeah” Delphine breathed out.

“Does that mean if we ever break up you will still keep in touch with them but never talk to me again?”

“Probably” was all Delphine said before falling asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again, thanks for reading, thanks for the Kudos and thanks for taking the time to comment.

“Cosima, what are you doing” moaned a sleepy Delphine.

“If you have to ask then I’m doing it wrong” Cosima said, sounding muffled, her head buried under the covers.  
“Non, Non you are not doing it wrong Cherie, I jus...ohhh...”Delphine let a low moan escape before finishing her thought “We only just got to sleep and your parents are in the next room”

“Uh uh, it’s been 4 hours since we went to bed and my folks just left for their Tai Chi class.” Delphine heard Cosima say in her still muffled voice.  
“Bebe`, please stop talking and continue what you were doing, s'il te plait”

Cosima loved pleasing her lover this way. Finding that she was very sensitive and receptive to her exploring tongue as it made its way through quickly slicking folds. The familiar taste of her girlfriend was something she was sure she would never tire of. She briefly swiped past her hardening clit, but just for a second, wanting to exploit some other area first. Cosima grabbed Delphine’s ass tighter and pulled her further into her mouth, wanting to immerse herself deeper into her girlfriend sex. Delphine followed her lead and began bucking her hips trying to find her rhythm and hopefully encourage Cosima to get to where she needed her most. This only made Cosima want to tease her more. Retreating from Delphine clit and running her tongue back down the length of her slit stopping at the puckered sensitive skin, making a quick circle there before she finally returned to her entrance and dove her tongue deep inside.   
“Merde...Oui Cosima” Delphine encouraged. Desperate for release, Delphine decided to speed things up and reached her hand down between her legs so she could rub her own clit while her girlfriend fucked her with her tongue. The move caught Cosima’s attention so she nudged her hand away with her nose and moved up to where Delphine needed her most. She sucked the throbbing bundle of nerves into her mouth and continued fucking her with her fingers, slipping two, and then three fingers in easily. She was proud of her full body assault and knew it would only take a few seconds for Delphine to come, and she did, hard. The volume of her screams were comical, and Cosima giggled as she thought about what her parent’s neighbors thought Sally and Gene Niehaus where up to this early morning. 

“Why you are laughing?” Delphine wondered out loud.

“I was just thinking about my parent’s neighbors and what they thought of the little vocalization skills you let loose there.” Cosima said as she made her way back up her lover’s long torso to rest her chin on Delphine’s chest.

Delphine looked her in the eyes suspiciously, “Non. You are teasing me, I was not that loud” she said in an indignant tone.

“Oh, fuck yeah you were, I’m just glad I was protected by the down comforter, you could have blown out my ear drum!” Cosima’s eyes sparkled with mirth, she loved to tease Delphine this way too.

“It’s cool babe, I’ve wanted to make a girl scream in this bed since puberty” 

“I’m sure you made plenty of girls scream from this bed” Delphine said as she repositioned herself so she could better see her girlfriend.

“Nope, never from this bed, fuck, I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 18, and that was in the back of Kyle Bowie’s VW bus. And I didn’t lose my second virginity until College.”

Delphine’ eyebrow raised. ”Second virginity?” she asked

“Um, yeah, you know, the first time a slept with a girl” Cosima answered. 

“College? But I thought you had always known you preferred girls.” Said Delphine

“Yeah, I did. I had my first kiss with a girl when I was 13 and, although I I had my fair share of make-out sesh’s with them, I never went all the way until I was older” Cosima answered sheepishly “ I was just really kind of a nerd, a late bloomer, I guess you could say.” She went on.

Delphine reached over to brush away a stray dreadlock “You’re lucky you were older, that kind of emotion and behavior can really mess with a much younger adolescent, believe me, I know”

“Oh yeah?” Cosima’s curiosity peaked, “How old were you?”

“I was 14” Delphine answered

“Wow, um, don’t take this as slut shaming or anything, but that’s pretty young Delphine”

“Oui, I know. I’m not very proud of it.”

“But, I thought you went to an all-girls boarding school, oh shit!” Cosima became overly animated, sitting up “it wasn’t with a teacher was it?”

“No! Of course not!” Delphine shouted, shoving her lover away in a not so serious way

“Hey, hey, gentle” Cosima inched her way back over to Delphine “I’m sorry, I’m just saying, you know, you kind of have a thing for older guys in authority positions” Delphine scrunched up her nose, absorbing what her lover said.

“Touché!” Delphine guffawed “He was the older brother of my school friend, I didn’t particularly care for him but I was impatient with my youth, I was, how you say it? In a hurry to grow up. Anyway, He didn’t seem to care either, we did it once and he got up and left right after.” Delphine got lost a little in the memory before noticing Cosima’s sad expression. She decided it was time to change the subject.

“I kissed my first girl when I was 28 and I lost my, as you call it, second virginity, when I was 29. “ 

Cosima looked up at her with confusion in her eyes, Delphine could tell she was doing the math in her head.

“Hey, I thought you said I was the first girl you kissed?” Cosima asked

“Oui, I did, you are” Delphine watched her closely

“And, you lost your lady virginity to me too, right?” Cosima plowed on

“Oui, I did” Delphine followed suit

“Um, when exactly is your birthday, Delphine” Cosima asked her girlfriend, embarrassed that she hadn’t asked sooner. 

“October 20th” Delphine said in a hushed voice. She watched intently as realization of the date took root in Cosima’s mind.

Cosima eyes grew wide “Oh, fuck babe, what a shitty birthday!” 

Delphine smiled even though it didn’t reach her eyes. She watched the disappointment grow on Cosima’s face and she reached up to try and rub the worry from her brow, “It wasn’t all bad, we had a good morning, it just went to shit once you found out my real name and confronted me before taking off to Toronto...” her voice trailed off as she mumbled “while I went to 6 different stores looking for French truffles.” Delphine deadpanned.

Cosima reached over to Delphine’s chin to raise her head that had dropped in shame as she recalled the memory. “Come ‘er” she whispered as she pulled her closer, “I’m sorry I didn’t ask sooner and I promise your next birthday will be the bomb! Okay?” she finished with a kiss to her lover.

Delphine pulled away before the kiss got deeper. “Yeah, Cosima, it will be the bomb” she repeated with a chuckle.

Cosima got up from the bed and stretched her limbs as far as they would go. “You know babe, I think this is the most we’ve ever talked about non-cloned related stuff in our entire relationship.”

Delphine sat in the bed watching her Lover do various stretches, clearly trying to recalibrate her joints after sharing her small bed with someone else.

“I use to think you were really secretive, you know, always withholding stuff from me, but I’m coming to realize that you just aren’t the type to freely offer information...” Cosima paused looking over at Delphine to see if she was following along “But, now that I think about it, you’ve almost always answered my questions to some degree or another as honestly as you were allowed. I think the secret to getting to know Dr. Delphine Cormier lies in knowing the right questions to ask?” A loud pop from the shoulder Cosima was currently wrenching above her head interrupted them.

“Ouch, Cosima, is that normal?” Delphine squirmed

“What?” Cosima looked nonplused “That sound? That happens all the time, it’s cool, don’t change the subject, tell me, am I right Delphine, if I really want to get to know the real Delphine Cormier, all I have to do is ask you questions about yourself?”

Delphine rolled her eyes before answering, “I suppose the answer is yes, that is the best way to find things out about me. Maman always said a lady doesn’t talked about herself unless asked directly.”

Cosima pursed her lips a little, “Hmmm, and I guess I never really asked much about you, I was just some spoiled little clone wrapped up in a too crazy to be real science project ran by a bunch of pricks.

Satisfied with her body’s response to the stretching, Cosima made her way back to the bed.

“Scoot over” she said as she climbed back in to lay next to her lover “I’m sorry babe, I can really be a selfish bitch sometimes.” 

Delphine lifted her arm to invite her back into bed, “Non, don’t say that Mon Amour, what we went through was very unusual, and so, traditional courting rituals just weren’t possible at the time.” 

“Spoken like a true pragmatist Doctor.” Cosima snuggled closer to her lover. “So, back to my original question then, if I ask you anything about yourself, you will answer me honestly”

“Probably, but a lady should have some mystery as well, Non?” Delphine cooed “What would you like to know?”

“Why did you really cry after the first time we were, um, intimate?” Cosima felt shy suddenly asking the question.

Delphine took a few minutes to think about her answer. “To be honest, there were a few reasons. Delphine eyes fixated on a spot on the roof of the small room.

“I was ashamed for lying to you, and about spying on you. I had begun to think of you as a real friend, not a test subject or acquaintance even. It didn’t feel right to betray you like that and share your personal business with Leekie, it made me ashamed of what I had allowed myself to become.” 

Cosima absorbed what she was saying but couldn’t look at Delphine in the face either.

“And, then there was the embarrassment, I was embarrassed that I was so terrible at the actual love making itself, I could tell that you were not satisfied...”

Seeing Delphine be so vulnerable snapped Cosima back to her space and her partners presence

“No, no, Babe I told you I was just trying to hurt you, I didn’t mean it.” Cosima interrupted

“Shush” Delphine admonished “You asked me a question and I’m answering it, ok?”

Cosima took her bottom lip into her teeth, literally biting her lip. 

“I was confused by what you had made me feel, the um, summersaults my stomach was doing while you were a...”Delphine seemed to struggle with how she wanted to say this next part, finally deciding at this point modesty was a waste of energy “while you were going down on me, I realized that I was very much enjoying it, and how desperately I wanted to do it to you. I wondered if that meant because I could hear my moans, I could hear my screams, I could feel my walls tighten around you, and I knew it was all real. No reaction was fake from me” Delphine grew flush remembering it.  
“Then, when it was done all I could think about was wanting to do it again and again, but knowing that this was not my life, I was not a student, I wasn’t just a girl you had innocently met in a lab and we weren’t just two people in the early days of a love affair. I was your monitor, and at some point you would realize this and hate me.” Delphine finally returned her gaze back to her girlfriend. “So, that is why I was crying? What else do you want to know?” Delphine finished. 

Cosima had a million more questions but she could feel the emotional toll it took on Delphine to answer just the one. Realizing that time was running out for them in this brief window of privacy, she decided that reassuring her girl that she was forgiven for all her past ill-advised digressions was more important at this moment, tilting her head so she could kiss the corner of Delphine’s mouth. She brought Delphine full attention back to her.   
“I know you believe you were a terrible lay but the truth is, I’ve had worst fucks with woman with a hundred times more experience than you, maybe it’s the French thing, but you never had to worry about that babe. Thank you for being so honest with me, I love you and I plan on spending the rest of my life making sure you know that, I want to know everything about you, and I don’t want you to hold back, especially when I do that thing that makes you scream really, really fucking loud.” Cosima couldn’t help to punctuate the last really with a wiggle of her brow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, thanks for the Kudos and thanks for taking the time to comment.


	7. Chapter 7

Delphine sat patiently, scrolling through her phone, as she waited for her girlfriend to finish getting ready for their night out. They were wrapping up their 7 day stay in San Francisco that included tons of sight-seeing, tons of family time and, as of yesterday, tons of wine tasting in the regions well respected worldwide, As Cosima liked to point out, Wine country.   
But if Delphin was being honest she was more than ready to return home, or at least what they had been refereeing to as home for the last few weeks. She had intended on talking with Cosima about their next moves but hadn’t really wanted to burst their current bubble of blissful calm that no longer included having to make life threatening decision or meddling in corporate conspiracy. Instead they just had to tackle simple decisions such as where they would eat and what show they would binge next. But the reality was that their life was beckoning them to return. They knew they needed to get started on the process of locating the many Leda sisters scattered across the globe and administer the clone disease cure to those in need of it. 

Delphine’s phone pinged, indicating she had a new text, breaking her concentration from mindless phone surfing, she quickly read the text and responded.

The noise caught Cosima’s attention as well “Who you texting” She asked?

“Why do you want to know? Are you jealous” Delphine teased.

“No, I don’t get jealous, you don’t have to tell me, you have your own life” Cosima answer matter-of-factly, hence peaking Delphine curiosity. 

Delphine looked away from the screen “You really never get jealous?” she asked skeptically

Cosima finished applying her eye liner, double checking it in the mirror, dabbing the corner with a little more flare before returning the eyeliner pencil back in to her makeup case.

“Nope, I’m all for free will, you don’t belong to me. You can do whatever or whomever you please.” Cosima answered as she made her way to the closet to grab her new cashmere, boldly patterned, pashmina they had recently bought during a shopping outing earlier in the week and walked to the door, “Ready?” she asked. Looking back over her shoulder towards Delphine.  
Delphine felt a little unnerved by her girlfriend’s nonchalant attitude towards their relationship but felt she couldn’t call her out on it after her abysmal behavior during the entire Shay affair.   
She has many strength, but her biggest weakness was her inability to control her jealously, especially when it came to Cosima.  
It was hard for her to think that Cosima really wouldn’t care if she actually took her up on her offer to bed another.  
She supposed at some point the subject would come up but decided to shelve it for a later time, not wanting to ruin their last night of vacation.

~~

The cab pulled up to the darkly lit venue, nothing extraordinary about the street to indicate they had just arrived at Cosima favorite bar other than a line forming behind a red velvet rope manned by a very tall woman with a closely cropped hair bleached almost white.

“Hey Coisima! You’re back!” the woman yelled when she noticed them crawl out of the cab. “Get over here!” she said while making the crowd move over to make room for the two newcomers.

“Tiny! Gurrrl! I love the new doo! You look hella hot!” Cosima ran up to the bouncer and wrapped her in a big hug.   
“You too Cos! Who’s this?” Tiny asked, gesturing towards Delphine, “This, is my equally as hot Girlfriend Delphine” Before Delphine could react she was pulled into a tight embrace, her nose just barely clearing the others breast, and actually felt her feet leave the ground for a millisecond.   
“Bonsoir er, Tiny, very nice to meet you.” Delphine responded as she spoke into the others chest.   
Tiny release Delphine and shot a look over towards Cosima, “Holy Fuck, she’s French?”  
“Mmm hmm” Cosima hummed, “she’s also really thirsty. Who bartending tonight?”  
Tiny reached to open the door for the two, Shel. Tell her the first rounds on me!”   
“Tiny, you’re too sweet, thanks. I’ll save a dance for you” Cosima gave her a wink. Delphine caught the exchange but found it more comical than threatening at the sheer disparity of their height difference alone. The thought of these two coupling made her giggle. 

“What’s so Funny” Cosima asked catching the reaction of her lover.

“It’s nothing Cherie, lead the way” Delphine grabbed Cosima’s hem of her sleeve and allowed herself to be led to the crowded bar.

Within seconds she heard Cosima emit a high pitched squeal “Shelly Belly! I’m baaaack!”

The very busty Asian looked up from her station the minute she heard Cosima voice.

“Is that Cosima I see?” She returned, pretending to rub her eyes “Or is it just a mirage?”

“Nope, it’s me baby, how are you!” Cosima made her way to the front of the bar with Delphine still in tow. 

“I’m awesome now that my best customer is back, whose Blondie? Shel asked while basically eye fucking Delphine in front of an oblivious Cosima, “This is Delphine and I’ve been telling her about this place all day so hurry up and make me a Shel special, what you have Babe?” she asked Delphine.

Delphine looked a bit unsure “Um, a glass of Red wine” 

Shel looked at Cosima, then at Delphine, then back at Cosima

“You going to tell her or me?” She asked Cosima

“I got this” Cosima regarded Delphine, “this isn’t really the kind of place one orders wine” 

Delphine blinked once and then without skipping a beat she changed her order “A kettle one dirty martini please” 

Shel seemed impressed at the quick recovery “How dirty?” she purred

“Filthy” Delphine purred back, “Merci” she finished with a wink

Cosima smiled from ear to ear. “Fuck! I love this woman” she exclaimed as she reached for the brightly colored shot glass Shel had placed in front of her, slamming it back she returned the glass and demanded another 

Delphine reached for her drink, smelling it first then sipping it. A sideways grin breaking her stoic façade, “And I love this woman” she said eyeing Shel, “This is a fabulous martini, Sante!”

Cosima laughed before grabbing her hand and dragging her back into the crowed bar “Ok Cormier, keep in in your pants, come on let’s dance”

The two danced for what seemed like hours, shuffling through shot after shot being delivered at a rapid pace , some from Tiny, some from Shel, but most from the others in the bar showing appreciation for the show the two women were putting on on the dance floor. Delphine was definitely pouring on the sex appeal, enacting certain plan she had concocted on the cab ride over. 

She danced not only with Cosima, but many of the other woman that had hoped they could get in on the action. Cosima watch intently as she watched Shel work her way out from behind the bar and made her way behind Delphine, holding her hips tight as Delphine grinded back on her as she writhe to the rhythm of the club music. Cosima couldn’t help but appreciate the level of heat that was coming off the two woman but she was also finding herself succumbing to a very unfamiliar feeling, before she could act on it she felt herself being tugged from behind.

“Hey Cos!” she found herself face to face with one of her many ex’s

“Oh, hey Anne! What’s going on?” she said dragging her into a hug

“I was just about to go smoke this” her ex said, holding up a fat joint and rolling it between her fingers “Care to join me?”

Cosima smile grew a little bigger”Umm, well...” She looked over her ex’s shoulder and could see her current girlfriend was still dancing with Shel 

“Yeah, Man, yeah, I’ll join you, just give me a sec to tell Delphine” She made her way over to the dancing pair, breaking Delphine trance “Mon Amour, you found your way back to me, Non?” Delphine slurred slightly. 

“I did, but, would you mind if I ducked out for a minute, to smoke with one of my friends over there?’ she pointed towards the other woman who flaunted the joint and waved to Cosima, beckoning her to follow her outside.

Delphine eyed the woman and looked back to Cosima. “I don’t need you to have Fun Cosima, go. Smoke with your friend.” She said, “I too have a friend I can play with” she hummed as she turned back toward Shel, running her hand down the bartenders side landing it somewhere low and out of sight. Cosima watched on while feeling that that little feeling again.

“Um, ok, cool. Thanks Babe” she said, unsure, as she walked away from the two backwards, never taking her eyes off them. 

Outside on the patio Anne lit the joint and took a deep drag, holding it in for a few seconds before releasing the smoke. “That’s some good shit” she said before passing the splif over to Cosima. 

“So Cos, that’s your new piece of ass in there? The French girl?” she asked looking over Cosima’s shoulder where she could see Delphine dancing through the doorway.

Cosima took the joint and brought it to her lips, taking an equally deep drag, she held it briefly before coughing, it had been a long time since she had switched to the vape and the acrid smoke burned going down.

“She’s not a piece of Ass, she’s my girlfriend, we are together, like together, together.” Cosima tried to explain.

“Really?” asked the other girl

Cosima didn’t like the way Anne was refereeing to Delphine, she could feel herself getting angry as she defended her relationship. 

“Yeah Annnne,” Her annoyance bled through in the pronunciation of the others name, “really. We are like, the real thing.”

“Ah, so like she would agree to that?” Anne continued to push.

“Yeah, I think so” Cosima squinted her eyes as she tried to figure out her friends questions

“Ok, ok, but I think you should know that your for real, for real girlfriend is about to do a body shot of Shel’s massive tits” She said before taking another huge hit off the joint 

 

Cosima snapped her head around to see what her ex was referring to, and sure enough, Delphine was straddling the overly friendly bartender slumped on a bar stool, with her head buried in her barely covered chest.

The nagging feeling Cosima had been trying to suppress for the last hour and a half finally reached the surface propelling her into action.

“What the fuck are you doing Delphine!” she shouted as she sprinted to the bar. 

She reached her right as Delphine deftly flipped her head back with the shot glass securely place in her mouth, held by just her lips, and consumed its contents with the flare and bravado of a 5th year sorority girl

Cosima tugged at her arm trying to turn her back to face her, Delphine regarded her petite girlfriend with a seductive grin after releasing the shot glass from her suctioned lips with a pop.

“Bonsoir Cosima, I believe I am doing whatever I please with whomever I please. Isn’t that how you put it earlier?”

Cosima felt the rage simmer slightly as she began to realize she was being expertly played by her very savvy girlfriend.

All the while the sultry bartender had already set up a second shot glass, planting it between her heaving tits once again and encouraged Delphine to take another shot by attempting to pull her head back to her chest  
Delphine placed her hands on the bar to stop her forced decent “Non Mon Amie, I believe I’ve made my point, Merci”   
She pushed off the disappointed woman and grabbed Cosima’s wrist, “Come on, I think it is time for us to leave”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for all the fun comments and kudos and stuff!

Delphine heard the text come in but she was too physically spent to answer it. Her body still aching from the night before.   
She could hear her lover’s quiet breathing next to her, relieved she wasn’t woken by the sound of her phone.   
She didn’t want an encore performance of the night before, not that it wasn’t enjoyable. It was just a bit more athletic than their previous encounters.

Delphine shut her eyes again and let her mind drift back to the night before. She remembers a very tense and very silent cab ride home. Then, when they entered the room, Cosima went straight to the bathroom without uttering a single word. 

Delphine was fast beginning to realize Cosima didn’t appreciate the little game she was playing back at the club.   
Delphine stripped from her clothes, not bothering to put anything else on. Her body was still burning from the alcohol and dancing. She was just taking off her ear rings when she heard Cosima come back out from the bathroom. 

“Don’t turn around” she heard Cosima say. The rasp in her voiced made her think it was best that she didn’t turn around.

Delphine voice broke a little as she answered “Alright Cosima, I’m sorry for...” 

“Don’t speak either” Cosima cut her off. 

Delphine noticed her voice was a little louder this time, not shouting but stern none the less. Cosima had apparently made her way over to the side of the bed where Delphine was standing because she could feel the heat of the smaller woman radiating off her as well.

“I didn’t know you liked to play games Delphine, but, now that I do. I have a little game we’re going to play tonight. It’s called Cosima says, it’s a little like Simon says.” Cosima’s voice dropped another octave “You know how to play that game don’t you?” the last few words came out in a staccato manner.

“Ye” Delphine started before getting interrupted again.

“Uh huh, I didn’t say you could speak. You can nod your head if you understand.” Said Cosima

Delphine paused for a moment, not sure if this was a good idea. She was walking a thin line between irritated confusion and hyper sexual arousal. But she trusted Cosima, no matter how angry she may be at Delphine, she knew Cosima would never hurt her or try and humiliate her. Delphine made her decision and nodded her head yes, indicating she understood how the game would be played.

“Good, shut your eyes and turn around” Cosima told her

Delphine started to turn when she felt a stinging slap on her ass, “no, no ,no” Cosima teased,” I didn’t say, Cosima says turn around did I?”

“What the fuck? Did she just spank me?” Delphine thought to herself, but kept her mouth shut and instead nodded her head no.

“Good girl” Cosima praised. “Now, where were we? Cosima says, shut your eyes and turn around.

” Delphine did as she was instructed. She turned around but found she didn’t have a lot of room to move, Cosima had her tightly pinned between the bed and the bedside table.

Once she was facing Cosima she felt the brunette reach between her legs.

“Hmmm, it would appear you like our little game” she whispered as she ran her finger through her wet and swollen folds. Delphine couldn’t hold in the whimper that escaped. Cosima pulled her finger away before it reached where Delphine desperately wanted it.  
Instead Cosima licked her finger clean before leaning in to kiss Delphine to let her taste herself on her tongue.   
When Delphine tasted herself her desire shot up to off the charts territory. She reached down to pull Cosima’s face closer to hers in an attempt to deepen the kiss but was stopped when she felt Cosima pinch and twist her sensitive nipple hard, and not in a good way.

“I don’t remember saying you could touch me.” Cosima teased. Before lowering her mouth to her other nipple and gently biting it at first but slowly applying more pressure to make her point.

“Merde” Delphine mumbled to herself. 

Cosima pulled away from Delphine’s throbbing breast and eyed her suspiciously

“We’ll pretend I didn’t hear that” Cosima cooed returning to the game, “Cosima says get on the bed”

With her eye still closed tightly she reached back to feel her way down. Delphine sat down on the edge, afraid to lay back or scoot to the middle of the bed. She wasn’t going to do anything unless Cosima said she could, for Delphine, was beginning to understand just what was happening here. By challenging Cosima preferred state of low key, and easy going she had pushed her girlfriend to the dominating, controlling, and clearly driven by jealously girlfriend before her now. Delphine recognized she was being punished for her misbehavior and figured she owed it to her lover to take her lumps.

Cosima reached for her girlfriends hand and eased it up her outside leg, “Delphine, you’re being such a good girl, I, going to give you a little reward, I’m going to let you touch me now. 

She maneuvered her lovers hand to go over her thigh and stop right at the apex of her sex

Delphine’s still closed eyes sprung open wide and looked down “Mon Dieu...what is that?” she asked incredulously.

The look of complete and utter shock on Delphine’s face cause Cosima to break character and release a loud and hardy laugh.

“Shit babe, way to kill a mood!” she joked, a big grin erupted on her face “I’m guessing you’ve never seen a strap-on before?”

Delphine was pretty sure the game had been put on pause and her vow of silence was no longer in play 

“’Eh, Non, all my previous lovers had no need for one.” 

After the initial shock, Delphine leaned in to take a closer look, “Where did this come from?” she asked, always the curious scientist.

Cosima lifted her leg and rested it on the bed next to her girlfriend and practically preened as she stroked it lightly, almost as if petting the brightly colored phallus. 

“I found it in some of my old boxes in the garage when we returned my car.”

Delphine found she couldn’t tear her eyes away from what Cosima was doing to herself, Cosima smiled when she saw Delphine watching her. “Want to touch it?” She asked seductively.

Delphine looked up at her will innocent eyes “You didn’t say Cosima Says…”

~~

The phone on the night stand began to vibrate again, the noise pulling Delphine back from her thoughts of just a few hours earlier. She reached over and immediately recognized the number. She quickly swiped the screen as she crawled out of bed trying to make very little movement.

“Bonjour puppy, comment allez-vous?” She whispered as she scrambled to the bathroom so as to not wake up Cosima, not realizing that her lover had woken up anyway. 

Cosima strained her ears as she tried to listen to her girlfriend but found she was only speaking in her native tongue.

Cosima had been noticing that Delphine was spending a lot of time on her phone, receiving and sending texts. She never tried to read them, but sometimes she could see the message ghosting on her phone, all in French. She was having a hard time adjusting to this new beast that resided inside her. The possessiveness from earlier in the evening had manifested itself during their lovemaking, where usually their sexy time consisted of sweet endearments and giggles, last nights was rough and demanding, a byproduct of Cosima’s simmering jealousy that had arose when she began to notice the secretive texting habit Delphine had developed. 

 

After a few minutes she heard some movement from behind the door. “Au Revoir Cherie” Cosima heard her say “I will see you very soon” Delphine said softly as she hung up the phone.

Not wanted to be accused of eavesdropping, Cosima pretended to be asleep, but after a few minutes she felt Delphine reach over and pull her in to her naked chest.

“Allo my lover, I can tell you are awake, I’m sorry that I woke you.” Delphine spoke softly in her back.

Figuring that the jig was up, Cosima shifted in her arms so she could see Delphine’s face.

“Who were you just talking too, and why are you hiding it from me? She asked with a weight of vulnerability in her tone.

Delphine took a deep breath “It was Charlotte, she is learning French and likes to practice with me”

Cosima was surprised to hear that Delphine and her little sister had been corresponding.

“How long have you two been talking?” Cosima asked

“Since before I left for France. I got her a phone so we could speak every day.” Delphine told her.

“Why?” Cosima asked

“Because, I don’t want her to think we are abandoning her like all her other guardians” Delphine told her.

“What does that mean Delphine?” Cosima asked.

Delphine didn’t answer right away, Cosima heard her breathing against her neck, “I guess it means, you and I should have a talk about our future” she finally said.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for these two to leave pretend life behind and start making some real life decisions.  
> As usual, thanks for reading, commenting, kudoing and all that stuff.

Delphine wasn’t sure how much time had passed before she finally heard a muffled sigh come from the lump lying beside her.

“Fine, but can we at least have this conversation over food? I’m hungover as shit and I think I’m going to need some very bad for me food for this talk.”

Delphine just rolled her eyes. “It’s going to be fine Mon Amour, but yes, we can get some food first. Take me to your favorite greasy spoon in this city, but we don’t have a lot of time, we need to check out at 11am” she finished  
“No worries, I know of a place walking distance.” Cosima huffed, as she pulled herself out from under the covers.  
They arrived at the entrance of a brightly colored, but slightly dingy looking storefront with chineses writing on the windows.

“This does not seem like a greasy spoon Cosima” Delphine questioned

“It’s not, per se, but the Eastern Bakery has the best fucking mooncakes this side of China, and the custard tarts are to die for, they even have croissants, Come on, I guarantee you wont be disappointed.”

Delphine was surprised how hungry she was, they ordered, moon cakes, dumplings and a diverse offering of pastries and purchase some extremely strong coffee before finding a quiet place to sit.

They both sat in silence sampling the array of food, neither wanting to start. Cosima finally took a big drag from her cup of coffee, swallowed the bitter liquid and looked squarely at Delphine

“Do you want children Delphine?” Cosima finally asked.

Delphine, took the last remaining bite of the buttery treat she had been daintily pulling apart and eating for the last few minutes and wiped her mouth clean of crumbs. 

“To be honest” she began “No, not really” 

“ohthankgod!” Cosima spat out quickly. 

This made Delphine snort in laughter before she went on. “With that said, Cosima, I’ve recently allowed myself to entertain other possibilities.”

Cosima took another bite of her breakfast, chewed for a second, and swallowed the bite, “ok...So what does that mean?”  
Delphine looked up at the ceiling as if the explanation could be found there, “I’ve always been very dedicated to my work. I never entertained the thought of me every settling down or even falling in love and wanting a family of my own. That is until I met you and your family, all of your family, the extended version I mean” 

“Ok” Cosima coxed  
“Cosima” Delphine began, “the woman I was before I met you, was not a great person, she was power hungry, manipulative and very, very selfish. I did not like her, at all. There was a lot of self-loathing going on there. I never believed I was worthy of the kind of love you so willingly wanted to give me. That’s why I agreed to the conditions you placed on that love, to love all if you. And once I made that decision, everything else fell away. The ruthless ambition, the coveting of material possessions. The self-harming…she trailed off 

Cosima quirked an eyebrow “What do you mean?” 

“My relationship with Aldous was reckless and showed me how little I valued myself. But then, I was presented with an opportunity to redeem myself, be a new and improved version of me, and I wanted that. Cosima, I swear, every decision I was faced with after that promise I made to you was for the betterment of all the clones. I wanted to be part of that family and be someone they could trust and maybe, even someday, love. “

Delphine reached for another napkin and dabbed at the corner of her eyes where unshed tears were pooling.   
Cosima had unshed tears in her eyes too now. She had never realized her beautiful, strong, seemingly fearless, unwaveringly confident girlfriend had ever felt this way about herself.  
She wiped away the couple of tears that managed to fall, then sat up straight and reached for her Delphine’s hand, wiggling her fingers to encourage her to grab it. Which she finally did. 

Delphine released the breath she was holding “Cosima, I don’t want children, but I do want Charlotte.” 

~~

The two walked silently back to the hotel. Packed the rest of their gear and made their way down to the lobby. Cosima stayed behind as Delphine went to arrange for a cab to take them to the airport.

Cosima was lost in her head. One day ago, she was so excited to return to her life back in Toronto, eager to begin this exciting next chapter with her soul mate. She dreamed of them spending hours and hours laying around in bed, occasionally getting up to attend to the business of finding the scattered sisters and administering the clone cure. She knew she was being adolescent and indulgent. But after the shit they had all gone through she felt it was ok to employ this fantasy for just a little bit longer.  
“Are you ready Cherie?” that velvety smooth French lilt that always gave Cosima such a thrill broke her from her musings.   
“Um, yeah. Thanks” Cosima made her way to the street where a cab was waiting for them. She loaded her bag first and then reached for Delphine’s “Merci” Delphine automatically responded, no affection or annoyance, Just indifference.   
Cosima stayed in her head for the entire ride to the airport as well. She tried to imagine what this life Delphine wanted would look like. Occasionally stealing sideway glances at her blonde lover as she watched the city slide past her. She knew Delphine would allow her this time to digest and process as so many time before, often with those times resulting in Cosima getting what she wanted while Delphine took her lumps and accepted whatever she was given.   
Cosima felt her bottom lip quiver at the realization of that Delphine would always give in to her. But would she ever return the favor she wondered? She knew she could be stubborn, she knew she could be impatient to get her own way but it also occurred to Cosima that she didn’t know what she was willing to give up for Delphine because she had never been tested before. Delphine asked for so little in their relationship, other than the repeated request for trust and patients. Something, Cosima often was reluctant to give.  
“Shit”, she thought, Delphine had sacrificed everything in her life for her. Her career, her home, her sexy as fuck car… Security and luxury, just so she could live with her in a dank basement apartment in the seedy side of town.  
But could she give this to Delphine? Could she give her Charlotte?  
~~  
They went through the motions at the airport. Stood in line, presented passports, spread their legs and raised their arms through security. Put their shoes back on and tighten loose belts. Rushed to the gate because, as per usual, Cosima’s decision to stop and grab some coffee at the Peet’s kiosk made them miss their loading call. 

They struggled through the tight aisle, found their seats and wrestled to secure feeble seatbelts…

They listen to the Flight attendants warnings, they laughed at the cheesy jokes made by the pilots who tried to sooth the nerves of skittish flyers. They held each other’s hands as the plane worked its way up to a suitable elevation. 

Delphine had just closed her eyes when she heard Cosima say “Ok, so if we are going to do this, we will need to get a bigger place.” 

~~  
Delphine’s eyes flew open, “Cosima! Are you for real? Can we really talk about this?”  
“Yes, I’m for real and yes, we should talk about this.” Cosima shifted herself in the seat so she could face Delphine “Look, I’ll be 100 percent honest with you, I’ve never wanted babies, and not just because I can’t have them. I’ve just never had that maternal pull before.” Cosima reached out to lift Delphine’s chin up so their eyes could meet, “And I don’t see that changing by the way.” 

“That’s ok Mon Amour, I was not lying before when I said I did not want to have children. I enjoy babies, I like how they feel and I love to pinch their fatty cheeks but I also enjoy giving them back to their parents and leaving them behind. That’s not what I’m asking for, nor do I ever see myself asking for that.”  
“Ok, then tell me what you want” Cosima prodded  
Delphine was about to answer, but was interrupted by the attendant “What can we get you two to drink?” she asked the girls  
Delphine immediately ordered a whiskey with a second separate cup filled with just ice, Cosima just rolled her eyes.   
“Oh, so it going to be one of those conversations huh?” She teased. Looking back at the attendant she ordered a red wine.   
~~  
By the time the Pilot had made his announcement that they were twenty minutes from landing they had a plan in formation. They would look for a house in Sarah’s neighborhood, preferably close enough to walk to Mrs. S’s home. They would talk to the other sisters and see about arranging alternating weekends to entertain Charlotte so they could have some occasional alone time together, a capitulation to Cosima, Delphine told herself.   
They were going to enroll Charlotte in the same school as Kira for now, Delphine still had a sour opinion on boarding schools and thought that the already forged relationship with her supposed cousin would help her make the transition from homeschooling easier. They would try it this way for a while and then decide moving forward what worked and didn’t work.   
There was still the matter of deciding who would be the legal guardian. Delphine new that the undeniable resemblance between Cosima and Charlotte made it a no-brainer, that she would be the distant relative responsible for her up-bringing but Delphine assured her that she had every intention of being a present and attentive “parent” to the young clone.  
Still unsure of how they would proceed when the time came to track down Leda’s but deciding that they would cross that bridge when they got there.   
“Please return to your seats, return your tray to the up-right position, strap those seatbelts back on, and relax as we prepare to land.” Instructed the disembodied voice of the flight attendant hidden somewhere in the front of the plane.   
“Thank you everybody. We know you all have a choice when booking flights and we thank you for choosing us this time.” He finished.

Cosima made her way to the aisle, gathered her belongings and cleared the way for Delphine to get up as well. They flowed with the crowd as they disembarked.   
Cosima was a few feet in front of Delphine when she saw two men in dark suits approach them, side swiping her as they moved towards Delphine.   
“Dr. Delphine Cormier?” one of them asked. Delphine looked up at him, shock in her eyes “Oui, who are you?” she asked  
“I’m Special Agent Maker and this is Special Agent Collier with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, we’re going to need you to come with us”.  
The agent grabbed Delphine’s arm harsher than she minded and she reacted by shakings herself free from his clutch. “Let go of me!” she shouted.

The agent, not appreciating Delphine’s noncompliance, pushed her aside and pulled her arm behind her back, then did the same to the other arm and pulled out his handcuffs, placing her in them as she struggled to get Cosima’s full attention. “Cosima!”

“Hey!” Cosima shouted, “What the fuck?” She screamed as she made her way to Delphine, looking into her worried eyes. “Babe, what’s happening?” 

“Call Adele, tell her its happening” Delphine said over her shoulder as the agents dragged her away.


	10. Chapter 10

“Answer, answer, answer…God dammit answer your fucking phone Adele!” Cosima shouted into the receiver. 

She had been sitting on the curb at the airport, rocking back and forth, clearly still in shock from what had just happened, for almost an hour. Not sure what to do next. She didn’t know if Delphine was still at the airport, locked up in some room somewhere or if she was taken to some other location. All she did know, was she didn’t know what to do. 

She stared at the phone again and decided to try Felix, “he would know how to find his cornflake of sister” she thought.   
“Cosima! My Love, my darling! How are you and th….?” Felix answered with his usual flare before being cut off abruptly by Cosima.

“I need Adele Felix, she’s not answering her phone” she sounded as disparate as she felt.

“Well, hello to you too.” he answered a bit bitchier this time.

“I’m sorry Fe, it’s just, well they…they took her Fe… they took Delphine” she finally got the words out before bursting into tears again.

“Oh Fuck. Who took her Cos, and where are you now?” he asked now understanding the urgency.

“I’m at the Airport in Toronto, we had just got off the plane and these mother fuckers in suits took her, they said they were the CSIS…” Cosima answered dejectedly

“Ok, Ok, Um, firstly, I need you to pull yourself together Cos and get a cab, ok?” he asked, checking to see if Cosima was understanding what he was telling her to do. 

“Um, uh” Cosima began, he could her a sniffling sound from the other end of the phone.   
“Ok. Ok I’ll get a cab and what? Do I go the apartment? Do I go to the Loft?” Felix couldn’t help but notice how lost she sounded.

“No, you need to go to S’s house ok. Sarah is there and she can help. I’m in New York with Adele, well, not with her presently, but I know how to find her. Get yourself to Sarah’s and we’ll get there as soon as we can, yeah? He finished.

“New York?” Cosima sounded panicked “But what about Delphine Fe?” another sob was choked back.

“Look Cos, Delphine is alright. She knows what she has to do. And we know what we have to do.” He answered cryptically.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Cosima asked, sounding aggravated now.

“It means, we planned for this. I have to go.” He said before hanging up. 

“Urgh!” Cosima wanted to throw her phone, or kick something. Instead she just let loose a string of profanities until she finally relented and pulled herself up and found a cab. She gave the driver her sister’s address and sat back for the 45 minute drive. Silently crying as she made her way home, alone.   
~~  
Cosima arrived at S’s house but found it lifeless compared to her visits in the past, the lights were out and it looked empty. But she had no other choice. She was in the dark both figuratively and literally, and she wasn’t going to go against Felix instructions. 

“Bam, Bam, Bam” Cosima slammed her fist against the door several times, but nothing happened, no one answered and no light came on. She was about to give up when she heard a loud flushing sound and the clanking of old pipes. She looked up and thought she saw the flicker of a light from the second story bedroom.

She returned to banging on the door, “Hey!” she shouted, “Sarah open the god damn door!” She screamed, not caring who could hear her. 

After a few seconds she heard the chain rattle on the door and open just a little “Oi, what the fuck do you want?” came the familiar voice with a fair amount of slurring.

“Sarah, it’s me, Cosima, please open the door. We have an emergency” Cosima was pleading with her.

The word emergency had the right effect, snapping Sarah out of her haze for a moment, as she heard Sarah unchained the door and swing it open. 

“What is it?” Sarah demanded “Is it Kira? Yeah? She ok, what happen to her?” She seemed a bit unhinged and bordering on hysterical.

Cosima pushed her way in and slammed the door shut behind her. 

“No, it’s not Kira, its Delphine. She’s been taken….I don’t know, I guess, taken into custody or something…” Cosima voice trailed off as she looked around at the scene before her. There were tons of trash and empty food containers laying around the filthy living room. The kitchen area was in shambles as well. She could see several empty liquor bottles strewn about too. The place smelled like garbage and vomit she thought to herself

“”Shit Sarah, what happened here? Where’s Kira and Charlotte?”

Sarah looked past her guest and took in the mess she was looking at. “What? This? Yeah, I guess it’s the cleaning lady’s day off right?” She chuckled, stumbled and reached for the wall before dropping her head and heaved all over herself.

Cosima could not believe the sight in front of her, she quickly righted her sister and dragged her to the bathroom, draped her over the edge of toilet and left her there as she went back to the living room realizing there was nothing she could do but wait, she proceeded to clean everything up. 

It took nearly all night to right everything. After she was convinced her sister had nothing more to purge she threw her into the shower, still fully clothed and turned the water on full blast. Not caring about the temperature. She left her there for a few minutes and went to find something dry to wrap her in. She could hear Sarah floundering around in the shower stall, swatting at the falling water and telling the drops to “Fuck off”, once Cosima was satisfied that all the stink and puke was off her she wrapped her up in a robe she had found and dragged her to the bed.

“Holy Crap Sarah, what happened to you?” Cosima whispered as she pulled the covers up and tuck her in. She could hear her sister trying to hide her sobs. She looked so child-like at that moment, pulling the lapels of the robe tightly around herself, squeezing her arms around her own torso, as if hugging herself. 

“This is her Robe Cos, not mine, it’s hers… I don’t deserve to wear anything of hers Cos… she’s dead Cos, S is dead because of me Cos…”she trailed off, whimpering and sniveling into the sleeve of the robe until she finally passed out.

Cosima backed out the room, turned off the lights and made her way back into the kitchen. She finished the last of the dished and put the kettle on for tea. She checked her phone for the thousandth time but still not one call from anyone, including Delphine, or Felix. 

She looked around the house, satisfied with its state of repair, she was exhausted from the task but was thankful for the distraction, but once the job was done her mind went right back to work wondering what was happening, how could they have gone from the excitement of beginning their new life to right back into the shit hole of their past one?

And now she had to worry about the state she had found her sister in, what was going on with Sarah?  
She had so many unanswered questions swimming in her head…where was Kira and Charlotte? When would Felix arrive? What did Adele have to do with all this? Her mind was reeling, she finally decided to lay her head down, “for just a second” she told herself, before falling asleep. 

“Oi!” Cosima heard her sister voice shout, “Oi! Cos, why the fuck are you asleep on my couch and why are they here!” she was standing over Cosima and nudging her with her knee, “Wake up Cos, Felix and Adele are here and they want to talk to you!”

~~  
“Dr. Cormier, you would be doing yourself a big favor if you just answer our questions instead of ignoring us.” The man said. He was sitting across from Delphine in the brightly lit conference room of a non-descript office building, Delphine had surmised, was somewhere in downtown Toronto judging from the view out of the window. 

“I told you, I will answer your questions when I have my lawyer present.” Delphine responded defiantly.

The man in the suit who called himself Agent Maker, was clearly frustrated, he released a heavy sigh and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. They had been going back and forth like this going on three hours now. 

“I’m going to get some coffee” he finally decided, not offering to get Delphine any. He pushed himself from the table and left the room, leaving her alone.

Delphine looked around for some sort of signage to give her a hint where she was and if the people questioning her really were with the Canadian Security Intelligence Services. She barely got a look at the badges they showed her when they approached her as she got off the plane. She found herself wondering if she was really in the hands of some pissed off Neolutions looking to find out what she knew before getting rid of her permanently. 

She surveyed the room, staring at the mirror on the wall, she wondered if it was one of those two way, or in her case, one way windows where her captors could watch her. She looked up at the ceiling for any cameras tracking her as well. She even scoured the plants for a hidden camera. The ridiculousness of her situation and her spiraling out of control paranoia caused her to laugh out loud. She composed herself and shook her head trying to dislodge the plaguing thoughts. 

“What the hell do you think she finds so funny?” The agent asked his partner as they watched their detainee laughing to herself. 

“I have no idea, she doesn’t seem to be too worried though.” The second agent said “Hell, if I found myself being questioned by the feds about why her name keeps coming up in the investigation of the death and/or disappearance of 13 of my companies board directors, I would probably be shitting myself instead of giggling like a little girl” 

“Maybe she’s a fucking sociopath” Agent Maker said, as he ran his hand through his hair again.


	11. Chapter 11

Cosima blinked the sleep out of her eyes, registering her sister’s words, she gasped and shot up from the couch she had been passed out on, she only got so far before she felt her body stiffen and render her immobile. She stretched her arms above her head, releasing various cracks and pops from her congested joints, clearly the hours spent on the airplane coupled with the tension of recent circumstances had left its mark on her body.

She took a final deep breath and made her way to the kitchen where she found the non-clone siblings waiting for her to wake up and were still deep in, what appeared to be a covert conversation. She never even noticed Sarah slip out the front door. 

“What’s going on Adele, where’s my fucking girlfriend” Cosima started as she aggressively approached the redhead. 

“Well, Hey Honey” her southern drawl tripped with concern “Come on in here and sit down…um,” Adele struggle as she tried to appear as if everything was just fine.

“Don’t honey me, I am soooo absolutely over people keeping things from me. What’s going on?” Cosima demanded again.

Adele glanced over at Felix, who nodded for her to continue, “Cosima, sweet girl, there’s a really good chance that Delphine has been arrested and is probably being interrogated right now for her part in the illegal doings that the DYAD is currently embroiled in.” The entire sentenced was rushed and Cosima could tell it was information Adele didn’t want to share.

“how…come…her?” Cosima was finding it to hard ask, but it finally got out.

“Umm…” Adele appeared to be stalling “It looks like someone deep inside, had compiled some pretty convincing evidence implicating the former acting Director of The DYAD, not Aldous Leekie, but…Dr. Delphine Cormier,” Adele voice dropped a little as she said her name. “as a big player in the more unsavory business doings.” 

Cosima sat down and appeared to be digesting this new information. “Ok, but how did you guys know this before she was taken in? It seemed like Delphine expected it to happen. If that was the case, why did you let it happen?” she asked.

Felix, who was sitting across from Cosima, reached out to take her hand “Cosima, darling, When Delphine and Adele were in Geneva to follow the money, as Siobhan put it, they found a file containing a detailed dossier on Delphine. They were tracking all her dealings with board members, vendors…assorted multi-national conglomerates… They go all the way back to when she was sent to Frankfurt.”

“I don’t understand, are you telling me that Delphine is the mastermind behind all of DYADS shit?” Cosima struggled to understand what Felix was telling her. 

Adele abruptly cut in, “Oh, no, no, Darlin, they just were trying to make it look like she was the mastermind…But it’s not her baby girl, she’ still our Delphine, she’s been working with us all along. Siobhan was sure of it“ 

“Ok, then if you’ve known this was a possibility, then why am I just finding out about it?” Cosima asked.

The siblings regarded each other again, Adele spoke first “Delphine didn’t want to tell you because she feared you wouldn’t go along with the plan to take down DYAD” Felix spoke next, “Delphine knew you wouldn’t allow it, if you knew it risked her being arrested and losing her medical license.”

Cosima jump out of her chair and started pacing “Yeah, well, she was fucking right!” she shouted. 

Adele got up and went to the stressed out clone, she tried to stop Cosima from pacing by placing her hands on her face and forcing her to look at her, she spoke calmly “Cosima, we have been expecting this and we have a plan in motion. We know what we have to do. You just have to trust us. 

~~

“Archie Portman for agent Marker please” the fortyish looking, well-dressed man, said as he approached the reception desk.

“Is he expecting you?” asked the woman behind the desk

“He would be,” the man snarked “If he had allowed my client to call me when she was first brought in for questioning” he looked at his watch on his wrist, “roughly 18 hours ago, but that didn’t happen and I just spent the last 6 hours trying to locate her. So it would be very smart of Agent Marker to meet with me immediately.” 

The receptionist eyed the gentleman standing in front of her and reached for the phone. “Have a seat Mr. Portman, while I page him.”

Archie looked around the undecorated and empty lobby, noticing there were no chairs to sit in so he walked over to the locked door that would hopefully lead him to his client. He adjusted his tie and tapped his foot in annoyance.

“I’ll wait right here, thank you” he nodded.

~~

“Cosima” Felix said, “We have the best person to handle this on his way to where they are holding Delphine right now” he pulled her back down to her seat “We have been preparing for the possibility of this happening for a while now“

Adele pulled out a file from her bag and flipped it open in front of Cosima 

“Darlin, we have the upper hand, we know everything they are trying to accuse her of doing and have accumulated evidence to refute every point.”

~~

Archie was escorted down a long windowless hallway that ended at the door that led to the conference room holding Delphine. He first noticed the two agents sitting on one side of a long table taking up most of the room, and then Delphine on the other side. He made his way over to her, leaned down and whispered something in her ear, Delphine nodded in understanding.

“Who’s in charge?” Archie asked, looking over between the two agents.

Agent Marker rose up from his seat “That would be me” he said leaning towards the Lawyer and his client. I’m Agent Wallace Maker, CSIS lead investigator and I’m quite interested in your client’s recent reappearance after a very sudden and lengthy absence.” He sneered at the blonde woman across from him, “She seems to be quite a pivotal player in the questionable business dealing perpetrated from the company she was acting director of right before her disappearance.” He finished.

Archie snickered at what was surly a well-rehearsed speech the agent had been gnawing on. 

Agent Maker balked at the disrespect and addressed Delphine “Will you be answering my questions now Doctor?” He asked.

Delphine looked to Archie and then back to the Agent. “Oui” she answered “What do you want to know?

 

~~

 

“Cosima” Adele explained “Archibald Portman is one of the most sought after attorney and whistle blower advocates in the Country, probably all of North America as well. He’s practically the architect of the Manitoba’s Public Interest Disclosure Whistleblower Protection Act and has been working with Delphine for a several weeks now creating the paper trail and precise timeline showing what she was and wasn’t involved in as DYAD’s acting director.”

~~

“Are you implying Doctor, “ Agent Maker repeated “that not only are you a pawn in the DYAD’S hierarchy, but you are possibly, also, the person responsible for the substantial leak of classified information last month resulting in the toppling of the institute?” 

Delphine looked over to Archie before answering the agent. Archie sat back into his seat, and smoothed down his tie again and addressed Agent Maker directly.

“I would like to advise my client not to answer that question on grounds it might further incriminate her.” He looked over at Delphine, then back at the agents, “But, we are willing to entertain the possibility of pursuing immunity for her cooperation in this investigation if an agreement can be made that would assure she would not be prosecuted for any information she would be willing to share here today”

The agent scoffed “And how’s that going to work?”

~~

“And how’s that going to work? I mean, can she really just claim she’s a whistleblower?” Cosima repeated back.

“She can! It’s actually a pretty brilliant solution if you ask me. When she suggested it I could see the entire defense right before me. That girlfriend of yours is a god damn genius, you know that right?”   
Adele let loose a guffaw as she recalled their conversation, “She definitely did her homework, she has a better understanding of the Whistle blower act than most upperclassman law students have. She even knew that according to the act, an employee can make a public disclosure without following procedure of making a full disclosure to her superiors if the employee reasonably believes that a matter constitutes an imminent risk of a substantial and specific danger to the life, health or safety of said person…

~~

“So, you believed that your life was in imminent danger Doctor and that is why you disappeared for three months, no record of residence, or even a single monetary transaction to trace your steps?” Agent Maker huffed, he couldn’t hide his exhaustion anymore after working tirelessly to produce a document assuring Delphine immunity for any wrong doings she may have accrued during her term as acting director.

“Oui, I did believe my life was in imminent danger and that is why I was preparing to go into hiding to protect myself” Delphine defended.

“What do you mean preparing to go in hiding? Weren’t you in hiding?” Agent Maker asked.

“Non, I would describe where I was as being in recovery, not hiding” 

She looked to Archie who again gave her an encouraging nod. Delphine reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it up to revealed the still tender, pink scar on her stomach. 

“This is the result of a bullet wound to my abdomen, delivered by a compromised IA detective on the Toronto Police force named Marty Duko, who we can prove was commissioned to eliminate me by Evie Cho.”

Archie reached into his brief case and placed a folder in front of the agent “These are names and dates, as well as a formal police report detailing the attack filed with a Detective Arthur Bell, Dr. Cormier reached out to him after a physical altercation between herself and...a…”Archie leaned over and consulted the file, finally finding the report, “A…Dr. Nealon, on the evening she was shot.” 

~~

Adele had fixed herself a second bloody Mary while she continued explaining to Cosima everything Delphine was prepared to reveal to the agents. 

“Archie is also representing Art as a whistleblower too, they will be filing a complaint against the Toronto Police department implicating several detectives in the cover-up.”

“Delphine had sent a detailed email to Art’s home email account, something he apparently never checks,” Adele mentioned with some level of exasperation before she went on, “Describing what had happened with Nealon and the threat he had made her before meeting you at Bubbles that night. Making sure she had evidence that she had in fact, filed a complaint and was complying with law enforcement. She will tell them that one of the detective there told her to disappear for a while and that she was just doing what she was told to do, lay low until it was safe to come out of hiding.”

Cosima’s head was swirling around the minutia of all this new information. “So what happens now?”

~~

“So what happens now?” Delphine asked Archie. 

“Now, we wait. They are going to need to corroborate everything we’ve told them with everything they have accumulated during the investigation. This is far reaching Delphine, The conspiracy touched many multi-international corporations. But, hopefully, they will realize that you are just a small part of the puzzle. Someone who realized things where not as they seemed and made an attempt to right it. But at least you are on the record now. The evidence we have and the witnesses we will be able to produce, will ultimately exonerate you, I think we are in good shape. You did good Delphine.”

~~

“She did good Cosima.” Adele said as she dropped Cosima off back at the basement apartment she and Delphine were currently sharing. Cosima was disappointed to find it empty, hoping Delphine would be there waiting for her. She still didn’t know where she was, she just knew she was completely emotionally drained. 

She thought about Felix pained expression when she told him about the frazzled state she had found Sarah in when she had arrived at the house night before. She made him promise that he would try and figure out how to help their sister find her way out of the depression that had so wholly enveloped her. 

Realizing it had been almost two days since she last showered, she made her way to the bathroom, stripped down and immersed herself under the spray of hot water. She scrubbed and scrubbed, wanting to wash away everything that had happened in the last 48 hours. She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn’t even hear the commotion in the bathroom, or the shower Curtin open and close. In fact, she didn’t even react when she felt familiar arms reach around her and pull her into a tight embrace. She just turned into those arms and nuzzled her face into the crook of her lover’s neck and shoulder and broke out into silent sobs as the relief washed over her that Delphine was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure, I have absolutely zero knowledge in the ways of how lawyering works, sorry for the many likely inaccuracies involving the legal stuff!


	12. Chapter 12

All of the lights....buh buh buh buh buh buh buh  
All of the lights, all of the lights... buh buh buh buh buh buh buh

It took a minute for Cosima to realize what she was hearing as she approached the door leading to Felix’s loft. But it all clicked when she heard the pounding of the trumpets, ‘someone was definitely feeling Kanye today’ she mused to herself. It was a great surprise to find that behind the heavy door leading into the loft, it was her own girlfriend blasting the tune.

“Yo! Delphine what is going on in here?” she asked chuckling

“Bonjour Cherie!” Delphine screamed back to her lover over the pounding music. 

Cosima was having a hard time processing the site before her. Her, usually, well put together girlfriend was sloppily dressed and draped in an overly large apron that was splatter in various colors of paint. In her hand was a large paint brush and she was standing in front of an even larger canvas. 

“I repeat, what’s going on here?” Cosima asked again as she approached her leaning in to kiss her cheek while avoiding getting any paint on her. 

“Cosima! I am expanding my skill set.” Delphine answered excitedly. “I have been so...eh... restless...just sitting around waiting for the next Sister to be found to administer the cure, and with the legal case approaching...I have been having a difficult time getting out of my own head so Felix recommended I take up a hobby.” Delphine was speaking a mile a minute, very uncharacteristic of her normally conservative girlfriend Cosima thought. But, she didn’t mind it. She like seeing Delphine like this since it was usually Cosima coming undone. 

“All right, all right, I get it. That Cool Babe.” Cosima encouraged. “So what with the music then?”

Delphine was shaking her head, “Yes, I know, it’s not my first choice either but can you believe Felix has absolutely no Kendrick Lamar on his ipod?” She said incredulously

This made Cosima let out a surprised yelp, “No way, just Kanye huh” she asked sarcastically  
“Right? Well, he did have some Drake too, but that was it for wrap...think he would mind if I downloaded some Eminen?” 

Cosima turned back towards her girlfriend, ”Wait, are you serious? You like wrap?”

Delphine looked up from the ipod she was currently scrolling through to see what Cosima was so surprised about.

“Very much, you knew that didn’t you?” Delphine answered matter of factly

“No, I can honestly say, I did not know that about my extremely classy and very sophisticated, French, girlfriend.” Cosima told her.

Delphine roiled her eyes at the dark haired woman and huffed, “Cosima, the way you say that implies that you do not have a very high opinion of this genre of music.”

“Well...”Cosima hedged “It’s not my favorite, but that’s cool. What ever gets my baby’s groove on, that’s what important.” She finished with a kiss to the tip of Delphine’s nose.

Delphine allowed the patronizing kiss but pulled away intent on returning to her painting.

“It most certainly is what gets my...how did you say it? Groove? Yes, groove on.” Delphine flicked the heavily laden paint brush toward the canvas and a flourish of red paint spattered across the multi colored canvas. 

Cosima regarded the art in front of her. She surmised her girlfriend was definitely more influenced by the abstract masters not being able to make rhyme or reason from the painting in front of her, but she loved that Delphine knew herself well enough to search out a healthy outlet to release some of the stress she had been experiencing that last serval days.

Between meeting with her legal team to make sure she stays out of prison and the two looking for a home large enough for not only herself and Cosima, but Charlotte too. She was really beginning to feel the strain.  
Cosima was feeling the pressure as well. She was standing by her decision to co-parent the youngest Leda sister with Delphine, but that didn’t mean she still didn’t harbored some doubts about doing so. But there really was no going back now. Charlotte was beyond overjoyed to learn that she would finally be in a situation that would allow her to be safe and stable and also be able to stay in school with kids her own age. Plus, she and Kira had built a remarkable connection in such a short amount of time. The two were becoming use to seeing each other on a daily basis. Which was good, because Cosima had been trying to keep an eye on Sarah as well. Hoping that the state she had found her that first night back was just a one-off and that hopefully she was turning the corner. She had been encouraged to learn that Sarah was trying to pass the test for her GED and seemed hopeful she would find a job doing something she liked. But even with these strides, she could tell there was something still simmering behind her eyes. Sarah was keeping to herself and declining numerous invitations to spend time with the others. In fact she and Delphine hadn’t even been in the same room since before Siobhan’s passing.

“How is Sarah? Will she be at the Helena babies shower next week?” Delphine asked as she began to clean up her art supplies, sensing Cosima was getting antsy.

“Umm, she’s ok, I think. She still never talks about what happened, but at least shes been reaching out for some studying tips. She just gets really frustrated with math.” Cosima answered.

“”Yes, I can see that being an issue. Sarah is much more comfortable with the written word I suspect” Delphine deadpanned.

Cosima smiled at the dig, but stood by her sister “I think it’s great she’s taking the test and trying to get her diploma. I can’t tell if it’s for herself, for Kira or maybe even for S, but at least she’s trying.” Cosima defended. 

Delphine, duly admonished, came up behind Cosima. “Je Suis Desole Cherie, I don’t mean to tease her. I am very proud of her as well” she finished with a kiss to her lovers temple.

Cosima turned around in her lovers arms and pulled her down for a deeper kiss.

“You know what would make this artist stage of yours even better?” she whispered in Delphine ear

“I do not” Delphine purred back

“If you followed your art mentor Felix’s example...and painted in the nude” Cosima cooed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but sweet...


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay...I have been going back and forth on where to go with this, but I think the decision has been made. The end is near...again, thanks for reading, leaving kudos and the great comments.

Delphine had been awake for nearly 20 minutes already, she listen to the sounds of people puttering around outside the bedroom door. The boys were discussing the science, Hellwizard telling Scott about the latest hit he got on one of the avatars he created in the hopes of locating more Leda sisters, Scott being his usual adorable self, full of support and positivity. 

She could heard Cosima skyping with Sarah, who was struggling with her sample test. 

She felt guilty sleeping in, but...she just couldn’t pull herself out of bed this morning. 

Although she adored sleeping with her girlfriend every night, she also loved the times she could stretch out and take over the bed for herself, pulling the covers up to her neck and luxuriating in the cool sheets. She smiled at the smell of sex in the room, remembering the night before. The hours they spent pleasuring one another in what became a game of one upping each other. 

Her mind drifted back to the memory of their first kiss, then to the even more awkward first time they had fucked.

Even though she was alone in the room them memory still made her blush as she buried her face into the covers. It felt like a lifetime ago...

“Yeah, it showed” she would never forget the venom behind those words form Cosima

The comment gutted her. She vowed she would make Cosima eat her words if she ever got another chance to bed her. If there was one thing everyone could agree on about the lovely and brilliant, Dr. Delphine Cormier, it would be that she was an excellent student.

She remember the ferocious manner she went about trying to learn everything she could about the art of pleasing a female lover. She researched the mechanics of sex, breaking it down and reverse engineering her own experiences with previous lovers. She read lesbian erotica and watched same sex porn, only to learn later, that there was nothing valuable to gain there...She even reached out to her gay and bi friends, prepared with a questionnaire peppered with questions varying from technique, the pros and cons of accessories and a comment section to list personal preferences and favorite positions. 

She laughs at the memory now, realizing that all her knew gained knowledge was nothing compared to simple biology... Remembering the thrill of giving in to animal instinct and letting her body lead the way the next time they came together.

Of course, Cosima always tells her that she didn’t mean it, the words were just a result of her anger and the sting from the blondes betrayal...but still, if Cosima was being honest, the work Delphine put in wasn’t wasted, it showed that night in the loft.

~~  
Delphine finally rolled out of bed, showered and dressed. She was still getting use to a life of casual wear and messy hair. She missed her power suits and designer shoes. Perhaps, someday, she mused, I will return to the corporate world. But not until after they have cured, or at least tried to cure, all the other sisters.

She tried to slink into the lab unnoticed, taking her usual seat at the counter behind the others. She felt certain that they were on the right track with the methods they were using to find the others but it was slow and go. She wouldn’t say that out loud, instead she remained positive, reminding Cosima that they had already helped Tony, Crystal and the others. Plus, they had just discovered Camilla and would be making plans to travel to her soon. Baby steps, she kept telling herself.

“Hey Del, did you wrap the sock monkeys for the babies shower today yet?” Cosima asked, trying to change the subject from the overwhelming task of finding more clones.

“Oui, and I also bought them some teething toys. I literally saw the twins chewing on rocks the other day when I was examining them.” She said shaking her head in disbelief.

Cosima just laughed. Knowing what Delphine was saying was undoubtedly the truth. But even with that said, Cosima had been impressed at how well Helena was adjusting to being a mother. She was very good at caring for the boys and was very nurturing despite the way she had been raised.

“Also...” Delphine went on “the real estate agent...uh, what’s her name...called with a listing on Sarah street, She said she could make an appointment for us today if we want to check it out.”

Cosima made her way over to Delphine who was putting the finishing touched on the gift bow.

“’What’s her name’ “ Cosima stated with air quotes “Is Violet, and I call bullshit on you not remembering her name because you basically drool all over yourself whenever she’s around, admit it, you have the hots for our agent” Cosima teased.

Delphine could feel the blush rising from her chest, to be honest, she did actually have a little innocent crush on Violet.

”I... eh... don’t have the hots for her as you put it, but, yes, I do find her attractive, in a Lupita Nyong’o kind of a way...” she trailed off.

Cosima looked as if she was visualizing the assessment. “Huh, I can see that, you are totally right babe! And don’t sweat it, I think she’s hot too. Let me see the address” Cosima asked as she grabbed the post it from Delphine’s hand.

“Umm, Delphine? This address is S’s house.” She said, closely examining the piece of paper.

Delphine didn’t seem surprised “Yes, I told you she said the house was on that street” 

“No, it’s more than on the street, it’s on the lot, it Siobhan’s house, look” Cosima showed Delphine her phone where she had brought up the house on google maps showing the house with a for sale sign in front. 

“Oh Shit...Alison if not going to be cool with this.” Cosima mumbled as Delphine took the phone and zoomed in to the sign.

Delphine handed Cosima’s phone back to her “Did she mention it this morning? She asked

“Nope” Cosima said, popping the p at the end for emphasis

“And I’m not saying a thing, I’m playing dumb on this one and letting Felix handle it. 

Delphine knew better than to ask if that was wise. “Well, um, ok, I will just call Violet and let her know we don’t need an appointment” Delphine said as she searched for her own phone.

Cosima gave her a smirk “Yeah, you just do that why don’t you...tell your new girlfriend your old girlfriend says hello” 

“Shut up Cosima” Delphine spat out, before giggling a little.


End file.
